Ring Scan
Scroll right and you can cruise along the icy rings
of Saturn.
This high
resolution scan is a mosaic of images presented in natural color.
The images were recorded in May 2007
over about 2.5 hours as the Cassini spacecraft passed above
the unlit side of the rings.
To help track your progress, major rings and gaps are labeled
along with the distance from the center of the gas giant in kilometers.
The alphabetical designation of Saturn's rings is
historically
based on their order of
discovery;
rings A and B are the bright rings separated by the
Cassini division.
In order of increasing distance from Saturn,
the seven main rings run D,C,B,A,F,G,E.
(Faint, outer rings G and E
are not imaged here.)
Four days from now,
on November 29, Cassini will make a close flyby of
Saturn's moon Titan and use the large moon's gravity to nudge the
spacecraft into a series of 20 daring, elliptical,
ring-grazing orbits.
Diving through the ring plane just 11,000 kilometers
outside the F ring (far right) Cassini's first ring-graze
will be on December 4.