Ring Scan
Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA
Explanation: Scroll right and you can cruise
along the icy rings
of Saturn. This
high resolution scan is a mosaic of images presented in natural color. The images were recorded in May 2007 over about 2.5 hours as the Cassini spacecraft passed above the unlit side of the rings. To help track your progress, major rings and gaps are labeled along with the distance from the center of the gas giant in kilometers.
The alphabetical designation of Saturn's rings is
historically based on their order of
discovery; rings A and B are the bright rings separated by the
Cassini division. In order of increasing distance from Saturn, the seven main rings run D,C,B,A,F,G,E. (
Faint, outer rings G and E are not imaged here.)
Four days from now, on November 29, Cassini will make a close flyby of Saturn's moon Titan and use the large moon's gravity to nudge the spacecraft into a series of 20 daring, elliptical,
ring-grazing orbits. Diving
through the ring plane just 11,000 kilometers outside the F ring (far right) Cassini's first ring-graze will be on December 4.
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