Cassini spacecraft photographs four Saturnian satellites: Scientific American Gallery

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Cassini spacecraft photographs four Saturnian satellites

September 8, 2010 | 5

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NASA's prolific Cassini spacecraft, which has been orbiting Saturn since 2004, snapped a portrait of four Saturnian moons at once in July. Epimetheus, Janus and Prometheus appear as a cluster on the left side of Cassini's view, and the smaller Atlas is just visible toward the right, against the giant planet's rings. The Cassini image was taken by the spacecraft's narrow-angle camera in visible light.

Saturn has a wealth of natural satellites—more than 60 have been discovered—which allows for the occasional photo op with multiple moons. In 2009 the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope captured a full-color snapshot of four other Saturnian moons—Titan, Mimas, Dione and Enceladus—passing in front of the ringed planet.

More Cassini photographs are available at the Web site of the mission's imaging team.

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1. tharriss 07:13 PM 9/8/10

Awesome shot! What a beautiful photo.... great work!
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2. Sez Me 11:02 PM 9/8/10

I wonder how big they are?
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3. JamesDavis 07:23 AM 9/9/10

Wouldn't you just love to land on one and feel the vacuum of space ruffle your hair as you spin around the ring? How nice it would be just to get off Earth for awhile.
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4. dbtinc 08:49 AM 9/9/10

Great work NASA - now you guys who run the agency, listen up. Stop wasting time and money on manned space exploration including the International Space Station and concentrate on making science exciting again with efforts like this.
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5. KORATS15 06:33 PM 9/9/10

WOW !

NOW : PLEASE COMBINE YOUR OFFERS & EFFORTS WITH STARDATE !

STARDATE -= STARDATE.ORG & IS ALSO CARRIED OVER THE CBS RADIO NEWS NETWORKS' BROADCASTING STATIONS .

RESPECTFULLY PRESENTED ,

TOM SIMPSON
AND
VETERAN
UNITED STATES NAVY
GSM3 / 3RD- CLASS PETTY OFFICER.

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