Dione, Rings, Shadows, Saturn
What's happening in this strange juxtaposition of moon and planet?
First and foremost, Saturn's moon Dione was
captured here
in a dramatic panorama by the robotic
Cassini spacecraft currently orbiting the giant planet.
The bright and
cratered moon itself spans about 1100-km, with the large multi-ringed
crater Evander visible on the lower right.
Since the rings of Saturn are seen here nearly edge-on, they are
directly visible only as a thin horizontal line that passes behind
Dione.
Arcing across the bottom of
the image, however, are
shadows of Saturn's rings, showing some of the rich texture that could not be seen directly.
In the background, few cloud features are visible on
Saturn.
The featured image was taken during the
last planned flyby of Dione by Cassini, as the spacecraft is scheduled to
dive into Saturn's atmosphere
during 2017.