Saturn, Rings, and Two Moons
NASA's robot spacecraft
Voyager 2 made this image of Saturn as it
began to explore the Saturn system in 1981.
Saturn's famous rings are visible along with two of
its moons,
Rhea and
Dione
which appear as faint dots on the right
and lower right part of the picture.
Astronomers believe that Saturn's moons play a
fundamental role in sculpting its elaborate ring system.
A robot spacecraft named
Cassini was
launched last October and is expected to
rendezvous with the giant gas planet in 2004.