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Hubble Sees Moons Racing Across Saturn
This movie still captures the moons Mimas, Enceladus, and Dione as they begin their race across Saturn's disk. The still is from a movie created from images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. It reveals the planet's rings tilted nearly edge-on toward the Sun, an event that occurs once every 15 years. Because of this special alignment, the moons cast shadows on the planet and its rings. Dione is on the far left of the image, Mimas is in the middle, and Enceladus is on the right. Dione and Enceladus are casting long shadows on the rings. The "thumbnail" images on the left are frames from the movie that show the moons transiting the planet.
The images were taken Nov. 17, 1995 with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, in blue, green, and red filters.
About the Object
- DistanceDistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.The semi-major axis of Saturn's orbit about the sun is 9.5 Astronomical Units (A.U.) or roughly 1.4 billion km.
- DimensionsDimensionsThe physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky.The planet (without rings) has a diameter of roughly 75,000 miles (120,000 km) at the equator.
About the Data
- Data DescriptionData DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.The Hubble images and videos were created from HST data from proposal 6030: M. Tomasko and E. Karkoschka (University of Arizona); and proposal 9354: E. Karkoschka and M. Tomasko (University of Arizona). - InstrumentInstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.HST>WFPC2
- Exposure DatesExposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.November 17, 1995
- FiltersFiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.F336W, F410M, F467M, F588N, FQCH4N-B, and F673N
- Object NameObject NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.Saturn with moons
- Object DescriptionObject DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.Planet, moons
- Release DateMarch 20, 2007
- Science ReleaseSaturn Stars in Three Hubble Movies
- Credits
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Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
