CICLOPS: Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS
The Atlas Ring

The Atlas Ring
PIA 06113
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   A new ring of material, R/2004 S 1, in the orbit of Atlas has been seen in this view of the region between the edge of Saturn's A ring and the F ring taken by Cassini's wide angle camera on 1 July 2004 just after the spacecraft had crossed the ring plane following Saturn orbit insertion. The maximum radial resolution is approximately 7 km per pixel. The region from the A ring to the F ring spans some 3,500 km. The image has been enhanced to show the presence of faint ring material just beyond the edge of the A ring and in the orbit of Atlas (indicated by the red line in the image on the right). The moon Prometheus (86 kilometers, 53 miles across) can be seen close to the F ring at the lower left of the image.


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 Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The imaging team consists of scientists from the US, England, France, and Germany. The imaging operations center and team lead (Dr. C. Porco) are based at the Space Science Institute in 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.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Released: September 9, 2004 (PIA 06113)
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