Like Spokes of Old

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute , Posted on: Tuesday, 2 September 2008, 07:34 CDT Download full size image

The Cassini spacecraft spots a couple of large, wedge-shaped spokes in Saturn's B ring.

These spokes are similar in appearance to those seen by the Voyager spacecraft.

Prometheus (86 kilometers, or 53 miles across) can be spotted interior to the narrow F ring at left. Pan (28 kilometers, or 17 miles across at its widest point) is barely visible within the Encke Gap, below center.

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 26 degrees below the ringplane. Pan has been brightened in this image for better visibility. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 8, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 749,000 kilometers (465,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 31 degrees. Image scale is 41 kilometers (26 miles) per pixel.

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