Coolest Image of Saturn’s Rings
A decade ago I was using a science planning tool I helped develop to plan observations of Saturn’s rings with the Cassini spacecraft. The tool would show cartoon-like wireframe images of Saturn and its rings as seen from the predicted position of Cassini. They look like this:
It was with great anticipation that I viewed predictions of views of the rings from a perspective never before seen by humans: far above the plane of the rings. Saturn’s rotation axis is tilted about 27 degrees from its orbit, so from the perspective of the Earth, whose orbit is in nearly the same plane as Saturn’s (and also from the Voyager spacecraft that flew by it in the early 1980’s roughly in the mean plane of the solar system), the rings are never tilted toward us by more than about 27 degrees (the exact value depends on the precise relative inclination of the two planets’ orbits).
Yesterday the Cassini Imaging team released this stunning mosaic of Saturn’s rings. You have to check out the full version to really appreciate this image. Notice the irregularities along the outermost thin F ring, the moons nearby, the narrow gaps and fine ringlets. Truly spectacular.
Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI