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Cassini's slant on the rings

Explore the latest image from Cassini at Saturn, showcasing the thin F ring and its shepherd moons, Janus and Prometheus.

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Check out this latest image from Cassini at Saturn!

[Click to embiggen.] Oh, wow! This was taken when the spacecraft was almost in the plane of the rings, which are incredibly thin. You can see several different rings, including the broad A ring in the middle and the thin F ring on the outside. There are also two moons: Janus (the larger one, above) and Prometheus (smaller, below). Janus is about 180 km (110 miles) across, which isn't terribly big, but Prometheus is even smaller: 120 km (75 miles).

This picture made me smile not only because it is carved out of raw coolness, but also because it's the complement of an earlier image from Cassini (to the right). The earlier shot is of the moon Epimetheus, which shares an orbit with Janus, and Pandora, which shares an orbit with Prometheus! So the two images go together like a pair ...

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