This image is a false-color ultraviolet view of Saturn's B ring (center)
and A ring (right), separated by a large gap known as the Cassini
Division. It shows a bright horizontal streak, created by a series of
time lapse images involving a star named 26 Taurus.
The image was made over a nine-hour period as the star drifted behind the
rings. The opacity of the outer A ring is most pronounced on its inner
edge, indicating more ring debris is present there. The Encke Gap, much
smaller than the Cassini Division, is visible near the outer edge of the
A ring. The B ring is significantly more opaque than the A ring,
indicating a greater density of ring material when imaged from above. The
sky behind the rings glows red in the ultraviolet wavelengths from the
hydrogen gas that fills the solar system.
The images were processed from data taken by the ultraviolet imaging
spectrograph aboard the Cassini spacecraft in May 2005.
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 was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The
ultraviolet imaging spectrograph was built at, and the team is based at
the University of Colorado, Boulder.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The ultraviolet imaging
spectrograph team home page is at http://lasp.colorado.edu/cassini.
