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Saturn's Rings and Mimas
Saturn's moon Mimas is seen against the cool, blue-streaked backdrop of Saturn's northern hemisphere. Shadows cast by the rings arc across the planet, fading into darkness on Saturn's night side. The part of the atmosphere seen here appears darker and more bluish than the warm brown and gold hues seen in usual Saturn pictures. This coloring is due to preferential scattering of blue wavelengths by the cloud-free upper atmosphere. The bright blue swath near Mimas (398 kilometers, or 247 miles across) is created by sunlight passing through the Cassini division (4,800 kilometers, or 2,980 miles wide). The dark band that stretches across the center of the image is the shadow of Saturn's B ring, the densest of the main rings. Part of the actual Cassini division appears at the bottom, along with the A ring and the narrow, outer F ring. The A ring is transparent enough that, from this viewing angle, the atmosphere and threadlike shadows cast by the inner C ring are visible through it. The images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft on November 7, 2004, at a distance of 3.7 million kilometers (2.3 million miles) from Saturn. The Cassini spacecraft left Earth in 1997 and entered Saturn's orbit in July 2005. Scientists hope to keep Cassini orbiting Saturn for at least four years. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute Download Wallpaper: 800 x 600 | 1024 x 768 Return to galleries: Earth | Solar System | Stars & Galaxies | Spaceflight & Spacecraft
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