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COMETS EARTH JUPITER KUIPER BELT MARS MERCURY METEORITES NEPTUNE OORT CLOUD PLUTO SATURN SOLAR SYSTEM SPACE SUN URANUS VENUS ORDER PRINTS
PHOTO CATEGORIES SCIENCEVIEWS AMERICAN INDIAN AMPHIBIANS BIRDS BUGS FINE ART FOSSILS THE ISLANDS HISTORICAL PHOTOS MAMMALS OTHER PARKS PLANTS RELIGIOUS REPTILES SCIENCEVIEWS PRINTS
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A brilliant spot of sunlight, the opposition effect, travels outward across the rings as the Cassini spacecraft orbits Saturn. This surge in ring brightness is created around the point directly opposite the Sun from the spacecraft. This movie sequence of 29 images shows the opposition surge moving from the outer B ring, across the sparsely populated Cassini Division and onto the A ring. From Cassini's perspective, the rings are seen projected onto the planet where the ring shadows can be seen through the rings. This perspective, including rings and ring shadows, changes continuously during the sequence, giving the false impression that the ring features themselves are changing. This image sequence was taken over 15 minutes on Aug. 16, 2006. The images were acquired in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of approximately 253,000 kilometers (157,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 15 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel. |
