Cassini: Closest Dione Flyby

See new, spectacular, or mysterious sky images.
Post Reply
User avatar
bystander
Apathetic Retiree
Posts: 21571
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:06 pm
Location: Oklahoma

Cassini: Closest Dione Flyby

Post by bystander » Mon Jan 16, 2012 3:31 pm

NASA JPL-Caltech | Cassini Solstice Mission | CICLOPS | 2012 Jan 16

Closest Dione Flyby

Flying past Saturn's moon Dione, Cassini captured this view which includes two smaller moons, Epimetheus and Prometheus, near the planet's rings.

The image was taken in visible light with Cassini's narrow-angle camera during the spacecraft's flyby of Dione on Dec. 12, 2011. This encounter was the spacecraft's closest pass of the moon's surface, but, because this flyby was intended primarily for other Cassini instruments, it did not yield Cassini's best images of the moon. Higher resolution images were obtained during earlier flybys (see At Carthage Linea).

Dione (698 miles, or 1,123 kilometers across) is closest to Cassini here and is on the left of the image. Potato-shaped Prometheus (53 miles, or 86 kilometers across) appears above the rings near the center top of the image. Epimetheus (70 miles, or 113 kilometers across) is on the right.

This view looks toward the northern, sunlit side of the rings from less than one degree above the ring plane. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 67,000 miles (108,000 kilometers) from Dione. Image scale is 2,122 feet (647 meters) per pixel on Dione.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

<< Previous Cassini
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
— Garrison Keillor

User avatar
owlice
Guardian of the Codes
Posts: 8406
Joined: Wed Aug 04, 2004 4:18 pm
Location: Washington, DC

Re: Cassini: Closest Dione Flyby

Post by owlice » Mon Jan 16, 2012 9:03 pm

Oooooooooooohhhhh!!!!!! That's magnificent!!
A closed mouth gathers no foot.

User avatar
Ann
4725 Å
Posts: 13371
Joined: Sat May 29, 2010 5:33 am

Re: Cassini: Closest Dione Flyby

Post by Ann » Tue Jan 17, 2012 4:04 am

As usual, when it comes to Cassini images of the Saturn system, the images won't open for me.

Ann
Color Commentator

User avatar
bystander
Apathetic Retiree
Posts: 21571
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:06 pm
Location: Oklahoma

Re: Cassini: Closest Dione Flyby

Post by bystander » Tue Jan 17, 2012 5:05 am

There are 3 different links and none of them work for you?
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
— Garrison Keillor

User avatar
Ann
4725 Å
Posts: 13371
Joined: Sat May 29, 2010 5:33 am

Re: Cassini: Closest Dione Flyby

Post by Ann » Tue Jan 17, 2012 6:02 am

I didn't check the links. When I opened the page you posted, my computer got "locked" in a "trying to load" mode, and I didn't think of checking the links. Now that you told me, I finally did. The two first links didn't work, but the third one did.

Yes, that's a splendid image!

Ann
Color Commentator

Post Reply