Blue Saturn
Explanation:
Serene blue hues
highlight
this view of Saturn's northern
hemisphere from the Cassini spacecraft.
The image has been adjusted to approximate the natural
blue color
of visible sunlight scattered by the
gas giant's upper atmosphere.
Saturn's famous rings cast the dark
shadows stretching across
the frame with
infamous
cratered moon
Mimas
lurking at the lower left.
Orbiting beyond the
main
inner rings, Mimas itself is 400 kilometers across and
lies nearly 200,000 kilometers, over 3
Saturn radii,
from the center of the planet.
Still, Mimas orbits within Saturn's faint and tenuous outer
E ring.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
