Satellite Image of Saturn

Description

At upper left is the planet’s shadow on its rings. At lower left, just inside the F ring, is the small shepard moon, Prometheus. Saturn’s rings were first observed in 1610, but it was Giovanni Cassini in 1675 who realised that they were many small rings with gaps between them. The rings extend up to 120,700 kilometres from Saturn’s equator and are composed of silica rock, iron oxide and ice particles. This image was taken as part of the Cassini-Huygens mission, which launched in 1997 with the purpose of studying Saturn and its moons. Image taken on 29 October 2004 at a distance of 940,000 kilometres by a narrow angle camera aboard the Cassini orbiter. (Photo by Science Photo Library)