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Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Saturn, Tethys, and Titan

Saturn, Tethys, and Titan
Saturn, Tethys, and Titan Cassini spotted Saturn and two of its moons in this approximate true color image taken on 30 January 2008. The orange ball of Titan has just emerged from behind Saturn, and is much more distant from Cassini than the bright icy dot of Tethys, in the foreground at the lower left of the image. Because Cassini was on the north side of the rings, we are seeing the rings' shadowed side, so the broad, opaque B ring looks black, while the inner, tenuous C ring looks much brighter. As Cassini's mission proceeds, the season is approaching equinox, so the shadows of Saturn's rings now fall much closer to the planet's equator than they did in the beginning of the mission. At the same time, Saturn's northern hemisphere is losing the brilliant blue color it had at the start of Cassini's mission. NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI