Cassini spacecraft image of the edge of Saturn's moon Dione, backlit by the Sun. Dione has a diameter of 1,130 kilometres and is the densest of Saturn

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Cassini spacecraft image of the edge of Saturn's moon Dione, backlit by the Sun. Dione has a diameter of 1,130 kilometres and is the densest of Saturn's moons. The joint NASA-ESA Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was launched in 1997 and took seven years to reach Saturn and its moons. The Huygens probe separated from Cassini on 25th December 2004, and descended to the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The Cassini orbiter continued orbiting Saturn; studying its atmosphere and rings and performing flybys of its moons. Mosaic image obtained by Cassini's narrow-angle camera on 17th August 2015 at approximate distances of 59,000 and 75,000 kilometres from Dione.

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Size: 3726px × 2386px
Photo credit: © NASA/JPL-CALTECH/SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: -, 17, 2000s, 2010s, 2015, 21st, astronomical, astronomy, august, background, black, camera, cassini, cassini-huygens, century, crescent, dione, huygens, mission, monochrome, moon, narrow-angle, orbiter, outer, saturnian, solar, space, system, unmanned, white