Saturn's Rings #12
by Nasa/science Photo Library
Title
Saturn's Rings #12
Artist
Nasa/science Photo Library
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Saturn's rings. Satellite image of Saturn's rings showing a knotted ringlet within the Encke Gap (black). This small division in Saturn's A ring is 325 kilometres wide and is named after Johann Encke, a German astrologer. Pan, one of Saturn's shepard moons, orbits within the gap and maintains it. Saturn's rings were first observed in 1610, but it was Giovanni Cassini in 1675 who realised that they were many small rings with gaps between them. This image was taken as part of the Cassini- Huygens mission, which launched in 1997 with the purpose of studying Saturn and its moons. Image taken on 29 October 2004 at a distance of 807,000 kilometres by a narrow angle camera aboard the Cassini orbiter.
Uploaded
February 23rd, 2021
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