Sunrise on Saturn: Gorgeous Cassini Photo Shows Start of New Day

[Judi Lynn]

By Mi:e Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | July 11, 2017 04:17pm ET


This is what dawn on Saturn looks like, from afar.

The ringed planet is partly hidden in darkness and partly illuminated by the faint light of a distant sun in a gorgeous photo taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

"The light has traveled around 80 minutes since it left the sun's surface by the time it reaches Saturn," NASA officials wrote in a description of the image, which was released yesterday (July 10). "The illumination it provides is feeble; Earth gets 100 times the intensity, since it's roughly 10 times closer to the sun. Yet compared to the deep blackness of space, everything at Saturn still shines bright in the sunlight, be it direct or reflected."[Cassini's Saturn 'Grand Finale' Plan in Pictures]

Cassini took the photo on Feb. 25, at a distance of about 762,000 miles (1.23 million kilometers) from the ringed planet.

More:
https://www.space.com/37452-saturn-sunrise-nasa-cassini-photo.html?utm_source=notification

[Docreed2003]

1. Incredible...

As close as that picture seems, Cassini' distance to Saturn is over three times the distance from the earth to our moon

[PJMcK]

3. The scale is awesome! (n/t)

[sdfernando]

2. All these worlds are yours except Europa /nt

[longship]

5. Europa orbits Jupiter, not Saturn.

Know what you're saying, though. 2010!

[Warren DeMontague]

7. Yeah, but in that story the US and Russia are still adversaries.

...oh, wait.

[PJMcK]

4. Judi Lynn, you are a constant treasure!

You post so many fascinating and interesting links from politics and science to unusual bits of news. And sometimes you do it at the oddest hours!

Thank you!

[Warren DeMontague]

6. some of the absolute best photos in history

have been taken by that one spacecraft. By far.