Pallene

Filed under pretty pictures, global views, amateur image processing, Saturn's moons, Saturn's small moons, Cassini

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The best image Cassini took of Pallene throughout the primary mission reveals no features on the surface, which appears to be very smooth. This is a color view taken from a distance of 76,000 kilometers and a phase angle of 21 degrees on June 8, 2005. It has been magnified four times.

NASA / JPL / SSI / Gordan Ugarkovic

The surface has a blue tint to it, like Telesto but unlike most of the other tiny moons located close to Saturn. Pallene and its neighbor Methone, both just a few kilometers in diameter, were discovered in Cassini images; they orbit between Mimas and Enceladus, outside the main ring system.

Copyright holder: Gordan Ugarkovic

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Contact us to request publication permission from the copyright holder. Original image data dated on or about June 8, 2005