A train of diagonal channels in Saturn's F ring follows behind the moon
Prometheus. Each of these features was created during a previous close
approach of Prometheus to the ring.
When the moon is at the farthest point in its orbit of the planet, it
strays close to (and often into) the F ring. The resulting gravitational
disturbance leaves behind the channels seen here.
Atlas (30 kilometers, or 19 miles across at its widest point) appears at
lower right.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 27
degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the
Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 5, 2008. The view was
acquired at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (675,000
miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 34
degrees. Image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
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.