Saturn and Rhea, Cassini image. Saturn, a gas giant planet with an extensive ring system, is over 120,000 kilometres across. This sunlit equatorial vi

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Saturn and Rhea, Cassini image. Saturn, a gas giant planet with an extensive ring system, is over 120,000 kilometres across. This sunlit equatorial view shows Saturn's clouds and the ring system edge-on, as the dark band across centre. The moon Rhea (1528 kilometres across) is at far right. Rhea, the second-largest of Saturn's moons, orbits outside the main ring structures, at a distance of around 470,000 kilometres from the planet's equator. The shadow just seen at far left is from the moon Tethys. This mosaic of images was obtained on 4 November 2009, by the wide-angle camera on the orbiting Cassini spacecraft.

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Size: 2317px × 3768px
Photo credit: © NASA/JPL/SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 2009, 21st, 4, astronomical, astronomy, atmosphere, atmospheric, camera, cassini, century, clouds, day, edge, equatorial, gas, giant, image, moon, november, planet, planetary, rhea, ring, ringed, rings, saturn, saturnian, science, shadow, shadows, side, solar, space, spacecraft, sunlight, sunlit, system, tethys, wide-angle