Astronomy Picture of the Day

Ringside


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#81183 by @ 22.10.2005 00:00 - nach oben -
Ringside


Explanation:

Orbiting in the plane of
Saturn's rings,
Dione and the other icy saturnian moons have a perpetual
ringside view of the
gorgeous gas giant
planet.

Of course, while passing through the ring plane
the Cassini spacecraft also shares
their stunning
perspective.

The rings themselves can be seen slicing across the bottom of

this Cassini snapshot
.

Remarkably thin,
the bright rings still cast arcing shadows
across the planet's cloud tops.

Pale
Dione
, in the foreground, is
about 1,100 kilometers
across and orbits over 300,000 kilometers from the
visible outer edge of the A ring.




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