NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection

Crescent Rhea Occults Crescent Saturn

Soft hues, partially lit orbs, a thin trace of the ring, and slight shadows highlight this understated view of the majestic surroundings of the giant planet Saturn. Looking nearly back toward the Sun, the robot Cassini spacecraft [ http://en.wikipedia…] now orbiting Saturn captured crescent phases [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] of Saturn [ http://www.nineplan…] and its moon Rhea [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] in color a few months ago. As striking as the above image [ http://photojournal…] is, it is but a single frame from a recently released 60-frame silent movie where Rhea can be seen gliding in front of its parent world. Since Cassini was nearly in the plane of Saturn's rings [ http://pds-rings.se…], the normally impressive rings are visible here only as a thin line [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] across the image center. Cassini has now passed the official half-way mark of its mission around Saturn, but is well situated to complete another two years [ http://saturn.jpl.n…] investigating this complex and surprising system.

Cassini Imaging Team [ http://ciclops.org/], SSI [ http://www.spacesci…], JPL [ http://www.jpl.nasa…], ESA [ http://www.esa.int/], NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/]

Saturn

Rhea

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Moon

Sun

Saturn

Cassini

TRACE

Huygens Probe

Rhea

Cassini-Huygens

crescent

http://antwrp.gsfc.…

SPD-APOD-ap060711