PIA06659: A Glimpse of Atlas

A Glimpse of Atlas
Target Name: Atlas
Mission: Cassini
Spacecraft: Cassini Orbiter
Instrument: Imaging Science Subsystem - Narrow Angle
Product Size: 964 samples x 545 lines
Produced By: Cassini Imaging Team
Full-Res TIFF: PIA06659.tif (526.2 kB)
Full-Res JPEG: PIA06659.jpg (29.57 kB)
Medium-Res JPEG: PIA06659_modest.jpg (29.57 kB)

Original Caption Released with Image:

Saturn's little moon Atlas orbits Saturn between the outer edge of the A ring and the fascinating, twisted F ring. This image just barely resolves the disk of Atlas, and also shows some of the knotted structure for which the F ring is known. Atlas is 32 kilometers (20 miles) across.

The bright outer edge of the A ring is overexposed here, but farther down the image several bright ring features can be seen.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 25, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Atlas and at a Sun-Atlas-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 60 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel.


Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute


Image and caption provided by the Planetary Photojournal -- PIA06659