CICLOPS: Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS
Spokes Comin' Atcha

Spokes Comin' Atcha
PIA 11452
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   As Cassini sped around Saturn, the spacecraft turned to snap this image of bright spokes giving chase around the B ring.

These radial markings are appearing more often as Saturn approaches equinox in August 2009 (see PIA11144).

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 31 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Feb. 2, 2009. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 578,000 kilometers (359,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 144 degrees. Image scale is 30 kilometers (20 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: March 19, 2009 (PIA 11452)
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