PIA03451: Cassini's Farewell to Jupiter


Cassini’s Farewell to Jupiter

Caption:

On January 15, 2001, 17 days after it passed its closest approach to Jupiter, NASA's Cassini spacecraft looked back to see the giant planet as a thinning crescent.

This image is a color mosaic from that day, shot from a distance of 18.3 million kilometers (11.4 million miles). The smallest visible features are roughly 110 kilometers (70 miles) across. The solar phase angle, the angle from the spacecraft to the planet to the Sun, is 120 degrees.

A crescent Io, innermost of Jupiter's four large moons, appears to the left of Jupiter.

Cassini collected its last Jupiter images on March 22, 2001, as the spacecraft continued the final leg of its journey to a July 1, 2004, appointment with Saturn.

Background Info:

Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages Cassini for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Jupiter Io
System Jupiter
Target Type Planet Satellite
Mission Cassini-Huygens
Instrument Host Cassini Orbiter
Host Type Orbiter
Instrument Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS)
Detector
Extra Keywords Color
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2001-05-31
Date in Caption 2001-01-15 2001-03-22, 2004-07-01
Image Credit NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03451
Identifier PIA03451