Emily Lakdawalla • Jan 09, 2012
Pretty picture: Saturn, a big moon, and a teeny one
Here's a lovely recent view from Cassini of Saturn with its largest moon (Titan) and one of its teeny ringmoons (Prometheus, which is a little dot at the top of the rings on the right). The rings cast shadows on Saturn's southern hemisphere. The B ring casts a much darker shadow than the A ring because much of the B ring is packed so densely with large particles that it is opaque to sunlight. The A ring casts a paler shadow because its particles are separated enough that it's translucent. The color looks a bit monochromatic because it's only emulating true color -- the two images used to compose it were taken through filters in infrared wavelengths.
![Saturn, Titan, and Prometheus](https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_768x771_crop_center-center_60_line/saturn_tiny-titan_rings_color_ugordan_20120105.jpg 768w, https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_576x578_crop_center-center_60_line/saturn_tiny-titan_rings_color_ugordan_20120105.jpg 576w)
With this post I'm back from vacation, and more importantly, the kid is back in school, so I'm now ready for 2012 to begin! Stay tuned for a great year of science, news, and pretty pictures from across the solar system!
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