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Multimedia: Cassini Sees Moon Building Giant Snowballs in Saturn Ring

Cassini Sees Moon Building Giant Snowballs in Saturn Ring -- Resources

While orbiting Saturn for the last six years, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has kept a close eye on the collisions and disturbances in the gas giant’s rings. They provide the only nearby natural laboratory for scientists to see the processes that must have occurred in our early solar system, as planets and moons coalesced out of disks of debris.

Multiple F-Ring "Fans"



This mosaic of images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shows three fan-like structures in Saturn's tenuous F ring. Such "fans" suggest the existence of additional objects in the F ring. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI


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F Ring's Bright Core Clumps

Bright clumps of ring material and a fan-like structure appear near the core of Saturn's tenuous F ring in this mosaic of images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Such features suggest the existence of additional objects in the F ring. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI


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"Fan" in the F Ring

This mosaic of images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft depicts fan-like structures in Saturn's tenuous F ring. Bright features are also visible near the core of the ring. Such features suggest the existence of additional objects in the F ring. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI


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The Effect of Prometheus on the F Ring


This movie features a simulation showing the changes to a portion of Saturn's F ring as the shepherding moon Prometheus swings by it. The animation uses data obtained by the imaging cameras aboard NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute


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Catching a Cluster of Stars


While NASA's Cassini spacecraft was pointed to study Saturn's F ring, it happened to catch a globular star cluster passing through the camera's field of view. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI


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