Saturn's moons create art on the canvas of Saturn's rings with gravity as
their tool. Here Prometheus is seen sculpting the F ring while Daphnis (too
small to discern in this image) raises waves on the edges of the Keeler gap.
Prometheus (53 miles, or 86 kilometers across) is just above image center
while Daphnis (5 miles, or 8 kilometers across), although too small to see in
its location in the Keeler gap just to the right of center, can be located by
the waves it creates on the edges of the gap. Prometheus and stars have been
brightened by a factor of 2 relative to the rest of the image to enhance their
visibility. There are 20 stars visible in this image.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 53
degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the
Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 25, 2013.
The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.2 million miles (1.9
million kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle
of 111 degrees. Image scale is 7 miles (11 kilometers) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European
Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.
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