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APOD

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.

Ringside

Explanation: Orbiting in the plane of Saturn's rings , Dione and the other icy saturnian moons have a perpetual ringside view of the gorgeous gas giant planet. Of course, while passing through the ring plane the Cassini spacecraft also shares their stunning perspective . The rings themselves can be seen slicing across the bottom of this Cassini snapshot . Remarkably thin , the bright rings still cast arcing shadows across the planet's cloud tops. Pale Dione , in the foreground, is about 1,100 kilometers across and orbits over 300,000 kilometers from the visible outer edge of the A ring.

Date October 21, 2005
Credit Credit : Cassini Imaging Team , SSI , JPL , ESA , NASA
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.