There is a whole lot of awesome in a picture of Saturn and its rings just released from the Cassini spacecraft. Check this out:
Mmmmm, ringalicious. Cassini was about 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn when it took this picture, so we're seeing a decently wide-angle view. At the time, the spacecraft was below the plane of the rings, looking north (up, if you like). The Sun is off mostly to the left and up a bit. The first cool thing is obviously the shadow of the planet itself cast on the rings. It cuts across like a black scythe! As I looked at the picture my eyes and brain kept trying to fill in the missing arc of rings, which was amplified by a slight afterimage as my eyes moved around. It's a difficult illusion to ignore. Second, I love how you can see all the different ...
