Cassini photographed three saturn satellites simultaneously

On Earth, we often see an incomplete moon, for some phases there is even a name of our own, which is familiar to all of us - “Month”. But not only on Earth can you observe a change in the phases of the satellite. There are places in the solar system where such observations can be carried out constantly, and not with one satellite, but with many at once.

So, recently, the Cassini spacecraft photographed three months at once , three satellites of Saturn in the initial phase: Titan, Mimas, Reya. Titanium looks a bit foggy, because we see only its cloud layers, which produce a similar effect. The atmosphere of Titan refracts light, so peculiar "curls" are visible, slightly beyond the moon.



Back in 2004, when the Cassini station had just begun exploration of Saturn and Titan, scientists discovered that there are quite a lot of clouds at the north pole of Titan. It was a local "late summer." Clouds were observed until spring, all in the same northern hemisphere. After that, in 2010, a strong storm was discovered on the satellite of Saturn, and the clouds became much smaller, they almost disappeared.

Rhea (upper left corner) is covered with craters, which can be seen even at such a distance and under such lighting. As for Mimas, it is not very clearly visible, although points on the crescent can also be seen - this is also a result of countless collisions of meteorites with the surface of a planetoid.

The picture was taken by the station from a distance of about 2 million kilometers from Titan. Resolution for Titan is 121 km per pixel. For Mimas - 18.4 km per pixel. And for Rhea - 21.1 km per pixel.

Earlier, Cassini transmitted fairly detailed images of Hyperion , one of Saturn's small satellites.

It is worth noting that during its work (since 1997) Cassini transmitted a lot of interesting information to Earth. The station showed the rings of the giant planet, some of its satellites and other nearby objects. The information regularly sent by the station is extremely important for science - thanks to the device it was possible to better understand the nature of the rings of Saturn, to see the satellites of the gas giant as close as possible, to study the region.

There are other images transmitted by the station:


This is Tefiya - the third satellite of Saturn.


She, even closer than


Ray, can see the surface covered by impact craters.


Well, this is Janus


Ray and Dion