CICLOPS: Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS
Saturn and Mimas

Overexposed Mimas stands starkly against the disk of Saturn as the shadow of Epimetheus is captured through the C ring in the planet's rings. In reality, Mimas orbits in the same plane as the rings; it is Cassini's viewing geometry that tricks our eyes.

The image was taken in blue light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 26, 2008 at a distance of approximately 915,000 kilometers (569,000 miles) from Mimas and at a Sun-Mimas-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 28 degrees. Image scale is 55 kilometers (34 miles) per pixel.

The Cassini Equinox Mission is a joint United States and European endeavor. 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 was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. 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 Equinox Mission visit http://ciclops.org, http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Released: January 15, 2009 (PIA 10557)
Image/Caption Information 		  Saturn and Mimas
PIA 10557
Avg Rating: 8.62/10

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Alliance Member Comments
Arnaud (Jan 15, 2009 at 12:22 PM):
Interesting view if Saturn in the blue light. I noticed that the north pole of Saturn is especially bright compared to the rest of the globe, is this due to the thinner haze layers above the north pole?