Mimas, Rings, and Shadows
Explanation:
Caught in sunlight, icy moon
Mimas
shines above a broad shadow across
gas giant Saturn.
In
this
remarkable image from the Cassini spacecraft, tiny Mimas is
at the upper right.
The broad shadow across the giant planet is cast by
Saturn's dense B ring
with intriguing threadlike shadows from Saturn's inner C ring
arrayed below.
While the
B
and C rings are otherwise not visible here,
the very narrow outer F ring lies toward
the bottom of the image as well as a section of
the partly transparent A ring and its 300 kilometer wide
Encke gap crisscrossing the ring shadows.
Sunlight streaming
through the much larger Cassini gap
that separates the A and B rings is responsible for the
bright band seen above Mimas.
The Cassini gap itself is just off the bottom of this cropped view.
Orbiting well beyond Saturn's F ring,
Mimas is a mere 400 kilometers in diameter.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
