The Light of Night

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute, Posted on: Sunday, 11 May 2008, 09:41 CDT Download full size image

As Cassini spacecraft images often show, the Sun is not the only source of illumination in the Saturn System. The huge, reflective planet also shines upon its moons.

This image was acquired by Cassini and looks almost directly at down onto the north pole of Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across). The left side of this image is illuminated by the Sun, and most of the right side is lit by reflected light from Saturn. Several background stars made faint trails across the sky during this long exposure.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 22, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 649,000 kilometers (403,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 99 degrees. Image scale is 4 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.

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