A trio of pretty Cassini pics

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla

2010/03/19 02:19 CDT

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It's been a little while since I posted any Cassini pictures just because they were pretty, so here's a few recent ones, produced by amateurs from the images available on the Cassini raw images website.

NASA / JPL / SSI / color composite by Sean Walker

Tethys, Mimas, and the rings of Saturn

Cassini captured this picture-postcard view of the moons Mimas (top) and Tethys (bottom) floating near the rings on March 15, 2010.

NASA / JPL / SSI / color composite by Emily Lakdawalla

Titan and Dione

Dione passed in front of Titan on March 12, 2010 as Cassini snapped photos. Late in 2009, Cassini planners started commanding the spacecraft to take these "mutual event" movies not through a clear filter but instead through red, green, and blue filters sequentially; the raw data exists to produce an animation of Dione passing across Titan in color.