Epimetheus and the Rings

The Cassini spacecraft watches Saturn's small moon Epimetheus orbiting beyond the planet's rings.

See PIA09813 and PIA06226 for closer views of this moon. Epimetheus (70 miles, or 113 kilometers across) orbits beyond the thin F ring near the bottom center of this view and is farther from the spacecraft than the rings are here. This view looks toward the southern, unilluminated side of the rings from about 1 degree below the ringplane.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on December 30, 2011. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.5 million miles (2.4 million kilometers) from Epimetheus. Image scale is 9 miles (14 kilometers) per pixel.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute