We know the Cassini spacecraft around Saturn took this photo of a trio of moons . Rhea and Enceladus are easy to spy bracketing Saturn ’s ring . So fess up : Which one of you stole Atlas ?
The Cassini spacecraft snapped this photo on September 24 , 2015 when it was between 1 and 2 million air mile from each of the moons . But the subsequent difference in scales is n’t the only thing hiding Atlas from stack . The moon is just 19 miles ( 30 kilometre ) across , downright minuscule compare to the heftier Rhea ( 949 nautical mile or 1,527 km diameter ) and Enceladus ( 313 miles or 504 kilometers diameter ) .
If we start work through the relative size and distances , Rhea takes up 95 pixels across and Enceladus just over 60 , but poor little Atlas is just 2 picture element in diam . No admiration it ’s hard to spot !
After overa tenner of science , the Cassini spacecraft is currently onits parting tour of the Saturn system . It will be performingever - more daring feats of orbital dynamics this yearin the principal up to its final dip into the gas giant in 2017 .
Top image: The unilluminated side of Saturn’s rings from 0.34° below the ring plane including the moons Enceladus, Atlas, and Rhea. Image credit:NASA
connect with the author at[email protected]or follow her at@MikaMcKinnon .
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