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.
Name | Value | Additional Values |
---|---|---|
Target | Atlas | A Ring, Saturn, Saturn Rings |
System | Saturn | |
Target Type | Satellite | Planet, Ring |
Mission | Cassini-Huygens | |
Instrument Host | Cassini Orbiter | |
Host Type | Orbiter | |
Instrument | Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) | |
Detector | Narrow Angle Camera | |
Extra Keywords | Grayscale, Visual | |
Acquisition Date | ||
Release Date | 2005-05-30 | |
Date in Caption | 2005-04-25 | |
Image Credit | NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute | |
Source | photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06659 | |
Identifier | PIA06659 |