CICLOPS: Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS
Eyeing the E Ring

Eyeing the E Ring
PIA 12512
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   Cassini takes a look at Saturn's diffuse E ring which is formed from icy material spewing out of the south pole of the moon Enceladus.

See PIA08921 to learn more about how Enceladus creates the E ring. The E ring is seen nearly edge-on from the slightly above the northern side of Saturn's ring plane.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Oct. 23, 2009. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2.5 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 149 kilometers (92 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: December 24, 2009 (PIA 12512)
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