Inner D Ring

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Voyager 2 took this picture of Saturn's faint inner D ring Aug. 25 about 1 hour 48 minutes before the spacecraft's closest approach to Saturn. The range was 195,400 kilometers (121,300 miles) and phase angle was 166`. This view includes the sun's shadow across the ring. Voyager 1 saw this region in a similar view last fall, but this higher-resolution image shows many more ringlets and gaps. The D ring is very tenuous and has an extremely small optical depth. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.