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Cassini: Dione on a Diagonal

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:04 pm
by bystander
NASA JPL-Caltech | Cassini Solstice Mission | CICLOPS | 2012 Jan 30

Dione on a Diagonal

Saturn and Dione appear askew in this Cassini spacecraft view, with the north poles rotated to the right, as if they were threaded along on the thin diagonal line of the planet's rings.

This view looks toward the anti-Saturn side of Dione (698 miles, or 1,123 kilometers across). North on Dione is up and rotated 20 degrees to the right. This view looks toward the northern, sunlit side of the rings from less than one degree above the ring plane.

The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 12, 2011. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 35,000 miles (57,000 kilometers) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 41 degrees. Image scale is 2 miles (3 kilometers) per pixel on Dione.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

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