One of Saturn's strange co-orbital moons, Epimetheus, was captured by
Cassini in this view. Irregularly shaped Epimetheus occasionally swaps
orbits with nearby Janus (see PIA06603), and both moons play a role in
maintaining the outer edge of Saturn's bright A ring. Epimetheus is 116
kilometers (72 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft
narrow-angle camera on Jan. 22, 2005, at a distance of approximately
2.5 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Epimetheus and at a
Sun-Epimetheus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 90 degrees. Resolution in
the image is 15 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel. The image has been
contrast-enhanced to aid visibility.
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 team is based at the Space Science
Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page,
http://ciclops.org.