Saturn Looms

Janus is spotted over Saturn's north pole in this image while Mimas' shadow glides across Saturn.

Janus is the faint dot that appears just above Saturn's north pole. Mimas' shadow can be seen in the southern hemisphere of Saturn, south of the rings' shadow. (Both objects are easier to find in higher resolution versions.)

This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 25 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on August 24, 2012.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.6 million miles (2.6 million kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 80 degrees. Image scale is 94 miles (152 kilometers) per pixel. Janus has been brightened by a factor of 1.3 relative to Saturn to enhance its visibility.

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

Titan's Nile-like River

A miniature version of the Nile River, seen on Saturn’s moon Titan by the international Cassini mission. The river valley stretches more than 400 km from its ‘headwaters’ to a large sea, and likely contains hydrocarbons.

The image was acquired on 26 September 2012, on Cassini’s 87th close flyby of Titan. The river valley crosses Titan’s north polar region and runs into Kraken Mare, one of the three great seas in the high northern latitudes of the moon.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/ASI

Note: For more information, see Titan's Nile-Like River Valley.