PIA06535: Outer B Ring Edge


Outer B Ring Edge

Caption:

This close-up of the lit side of Saturn's outer B ring and the Cassini Division looks something like a phonograph record. There are subtle, wavelike patterns, hundreds of narrow features resembling a record's 'grooves' and a noticeable abrupt change in overall brightness beyond the dark gap near the right. To the left of the gap is the outer B ring with its sharp edge maintained by a strong gravitational resonance with the moon Mimas. To the right of the Huygens Gap are the plateau-like bands of the Cassini Division. The narrow ringlet within the gap is called the Huygens ringlet.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Oct. 29, 2004, at a distance of about 819,000 (509,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles) per pixel.

Background Info:

The Cassini-Huygens mission 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, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org .

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Saturn B Ring, Cassini Division, Mimas, Saturn Rings
System Saturn
Target Type Planet Gap, Ring, Satellite
Mission Cassini-Huygens
Instrument Host Cassini Orbiter Huygens Probe
Host Type Orbiter Lander, Probe
Instrument Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS)
Detector Narrow Angle Camera
Extra Keywords Grayscale, Visual, Wave
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2004-12-03
Date in Caption 2004-10-29
Image Credit NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06535
Identifier PIA06535