Ringside with Dione

[n2doc]

Speeding toward pale, icy Dione, Cassini's view is enriched by the tranquil gold and blue hues of Saturn in the distance. The horizontal stripes near the bottom of the image are Saturn's rings. The spacecraft was nearly in the plane of the rings when the images were taken, thinning them by perspective and masking their awesome scale. The thin, curving shadows of the C ring and part of the B ring adorn the northern latitudes visible here, a reminder of the rings' grandeur.

It is notable that Dione, like most of the other icy Saturnian satellites, looks no different in natural color than in monochrome images.

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07744

[djean111]

1. Oh, how beautiful! Thank you. n/t

[Stryst]

2. I remember watching the Galileo mission to Jupiter

when I was in high school, and being blown away by the pictures. But the pictures we're getting from Cassini are just so crisp and deep.