Cassini pierced the ring plane and rounded Saturn on Oct. 27, 2004, capturing this view of the dark portion of the rings. A portion of the planet’s atmosphere is visible here, as is its shadow on the surface of the rings.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera on Oct. 27, 2004, at a distance of about 618,000 kilometers (384,000 miles) from Saturn through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 1001 nanometers. The image scale is 33 kilometers (21 miles) per pixel.
Intriguing Enceladus
This Cassini view (right) of Enceladus hints at the curvilinear, groove-like features that crisscross the moon’s surface, as seen in images from NASA’s Voyager spacecraft.
The image shows the trailing hemisphere of Enceladus, which is the side opposite the moon’s direction of motion in its orbit. Enceladus is 499 kilometers (310 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Oct. 27, 2004, at a distance of about 766,000 kilometers (476,000 miles) from Enceladus and at a Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 34 degrees. The image scale is 4.6 kilometers (2.8 miles) per pixel.
