Cassini: Dwarfed by Saturn (Mimas)

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bystander
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Cassini: Dwarfed by Saturn (Mimas)

Post by bystander » Mon Oct 29, 2012 5:56 pm

NASA | JPL-Caltech | Cassini Solstice Mission | CICLOPS | 2012 Oct 29

Dwarfed by Saturn

Saturn's moon Mimas (top, center) appears near Saturn, dwarfed by its parent planet in this image.

Mimas (246 miles, or 396 kilometers across) appears tiny compared to the storms clearly visible in far northern and southern hemispheres of Saturn.

This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 18 degrees below the ringplane. North on Saturn is up and rotated 27 degrees to the left.

The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 20, 2012 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 752 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.5 million miles (2.4 million kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 64 degrees. Image scale is 87 miles (140 kilometers) per pixel.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

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owlice
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Re: Cassini: Dwarfed by Saturn (Mimas)

Post by owlice » Tue Oct 30, 2012 7:56 am

WOW!!!

Gorgeous!!!
A closed mouth gathers no foot.

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