PIA11635: Slicing the Arc


Slicing the Arc

Caption:

The bright arc within Saturn's G ring is shown truncated by the shadow of the planet at the bottom of this image.

Although it can't be seen here, the tiny moonlet Aegaeon (formerly known as S/2008 S 1) orbits within the bright arc. See PIA11148 to learn more. This view looks toward the northern, sunlit side of the rings from about 4 degrees above the ringplane. Many background stars are visible elongated by the motion of the spacecraft during the image's exposure.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 9, 2009. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 2.1 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 12 kilometers (7 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 mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/ . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org .

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Saturn Rings Aegaeon, G Ring, Saturn
System Saturn
Target Type Ring Planet, Satellite
Mission Cassini-Huygens
Instrument Host Cassini Orbiter
Host Type Orbiter
Instrument Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS)
Detector Narrow Angle Camera
Extra Keywords Grayscale, Moonlet, Shadow, Visual
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2009-12-01
Date in Caption 2009-10-09
Image Credit NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA11635
Identifier PIA11635