CICLOPS: Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS

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In the Moon's Wake

 

Intriguing features resembling drapes and kinks are visible in this Cassini view of Saturn's thin F ring. Several distinct ringlets are present, in addition to the bright, knotted core of the ring.

The obvious structure in the ring and its strands has been caused by Prometheus, the inner F ring shepherd satellite that recently swept past this region. (Prometheus is about 86 kilometers, 53 miles across) on the ring pulls material out the ring once every orbit (every 14.7 hours) as the moon gets close to the ring and its strands.

The image was taken with the narrow angle camera on January 19, 2005, from a distance of approximately 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn through a filter sensitive to polarized visible light. Resolution in the original image was 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel. The image was contrast-enhanced and magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility.

 

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In the Moon's Wake
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