Saturn and Mimas

Description

Saturn, a gas giant planet with an extensive ring system, is over 120,000 kilometres across. This equatorial view shows a crescent Saturn with the ring system seen edge-on as a dark band across centre. The moon Mimas (396 kilometres across) is the dark speck visible just above the rings near centre. Mimas, the smallest of Saturn’s main moons and its closest, orbits at a distance of around 120,000 kilometres from the planet’s equator, just outside the main ring system. This mosaic of images was obtained on 27 October 2009, by the wide-angle camera on the orbiting Cassini spacecraft. (Photo by Science Photo Library)