Exposing a Shadow

 

The shadow of the moon Tethys is revealed on Saturn's B and C rings in

this image which also includes the planet.

 

 

The planet is overexposed in this image in which the exposure time was set

to capture the faint shadow on the rings. Tethys itself is not visible in

this image. As Saturn approaches its August 2009 equinox, the planet's

moons cast shadows onto the rings. To learn more about this special time

and to see a movie of a moon's shadow moving across the rings, see PIA11651.

 

 

This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 20

degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the

Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on May 12, 2009. The view was

obtained at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (746,000

miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 28

degrees. Image scale is 65 kilometers (40 miles) per pixel.

 

 

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

saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team

homepage is at ciclops.org.credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

 

 

Image Addition Date:

 

2009-06-26

Done