Saturn's Moon Pan from Cassini
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Space Science Institute
Explanation: Why does Saturn's moon Pan look so odd?
Images taken last week from the
robotic Cassini spacecraft orbiting
Saturn have resolved the moon in unprecedented detail. The
surprising images reveal a moon that looks something like a
walnut with a
slab through its middle. Other
visible features on Pan include
rolling terrain,
long ridges, and a few craters. Spanning 30-kilometer across,
Pan orbits inside the 300-kilometer wide
Encke Gap of Saturn's expansive
A-ring, a gap known since the late 1800s. Next month, Cassini will be directed to pass near Saturn's massive moon
Titan so it can be pulled into a
final series of orbits that will take it, on occasion, completely inside Saturn's rings and prepare it
to dive into Saturn's atmosphere.
No comments:
Post a Comment