In this newly released Cassini spacecraft image, Dione appears cut in two by Saturn’s razor-thin rings. This scene was captured from just 0.02 degrees above the ring plane.
The bright streaks of Dione’s wispy terrain are seen near the moon’s limb at right. The medium-sized crater Turnus (63 miles, 101 kilometers, wide) is visible along Dione’s terminator.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on December 25, 2015. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.4 million miles (2.3 million kilometers) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 115 degrees. The image scale is 8.6 miles (13.8 kilometers) per pixel.
Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.
Follow us on Google and Google News.