Click on image for larger annotated version
Recent Cassini images show arcs of material co-orbiting with the Saturnian
moons Anthe and Methone.
Arrows indicate the positions of Anthe, at top left, and Methone, at
bottom right. Micrometeoroid impacts on the moons are the likely source of
the arc material.
Cassini imaging scientists believe the process that maintains the Anthe
and Methone arcs is similar to that which maintains the arc in the G ring
(see PIA08327). The general brightness of the image (along with
the faint horizontal banding pattern) results from the long exposure time
of 15 seconds required to capture the extremely faint ring arc and the
processing needed to enhance its visibility (which also enhances the
digital background noise in the image). The image was digitally processed
to remove most of the background noise. This view looks toward the
un-illuminated side of the rings from about 2 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft
narrow-angle camera on Oct. 29, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance
of approximately 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Anthe and
2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Methone. Image scale is 14
kilometers (9 miles) per pixel on Anthe and 13 kilometers (8 miles) on
Methone.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European
Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages
the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The
Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and
assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space
Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team
homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
