Titan, Rings, and Saturn from Cassini
Explanation:
How thin are the rings of Saturn?
Saturn's rings
to be about one kilometer thick, making them many times thinner,
in relative proportion, than a
razor blade.
This thinness
sometimes appears in
dramatic fashion
during an image taken nearly along the ring plane.
The
robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting
Saturn
has now captured another shot that dramatically highlights the ring's thinness.
The
above image was taken in mid January in
infrared and
polarized light.
Titan looms just over the thin rings,
while dark
ring shadows on Saturn show the Sun to be above the
ring plane.
Close
inspection of the image will show the smaller moon
Enceladus on the far right.
Cassini, humanity's first mission to orbit
Saturn, currently
has
operations planned until 2017.
Work for APOD while researching the universe:
Graduate student research assistant sought
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.
