Rhea Before Titan

Craters appear well defined on icy Rhea in front of the hazy orb of the much larger moon Titan in this Cassini spacecraft view of these two Saturn moons.

Lit terrain seen here is on the leading hemispheres of Rhea and Titan. North on the moons is up and rotated 13 degrees to the left. The limb, or edge of the visible disk, of Rhea is slightly overexposed in this view.

The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 10, 2011. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.2 million miles (2 million kilometers) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 109 degrees. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 810,000 miles (1.3 million kilometers) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 109 degrees. Image scale is 8 miles (12 kilometers) per pixel on Titan and 5 miles (8 kilometers) per pixel on Rhea.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

A Quintet of Saturn's Moons

A quintet of Saturn's moons come together in the Cassini spacecraft's field of view for this portrait.

Janus (179 kilometers, or 111 miles across) is on the far left. Pandora (81 kilometers, or 50 miles across) orbits between the A ring and the thin F ring near the middle of the image. Brightly reflective Enceladus (504 kilometers, or 313 miles across) appears above the center of the image. Saturn's second largest moon, Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across), is bisected by the right edge of the image. The smaller moon Mimas (396 kilometers, or 246 miles across) can be seen beyond Rhea also on the right side of the image.

This view looks toward the northern, sunlit side of the rings from just above the ringplane. Rhea is closest to Cassini here. The rings are beyond Rhea and Mimas. Enceladus is beyond the rings.

The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 29, 2011. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (684,000 miles) from Rhea and 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Enceladus.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Bright Are Saturn's Moons

The Cassini spacecraft observed three of Saturn's moons set against the darkened night side of the planet in this image from April 2011.

Saturn is present on the left this image but is too dark to see. Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) is closest to Cassini here and appears largest at the center of the image. Enceladus (504 kilometers, or 313 miles across) is to the right of Rhea. Dione (1,123 kilometers, or 698 miles across) is to the left of Rhea, and is partly obscured by Saturn.

This view looks toward the northern, sunlit side of the rings from just above the ringplane.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Rhea's Return

Rhea emerges ... After being occulted by the larger moon Titan.

Occultation is a celestial event in which a larger body covers up a distant object. Observations such as this one, in which one moon passes close to or in front of another, help scientists refine their understanding of the orbits of Saturn's moons. Titan is about 621,000 miles (1 million kilometers) from Cassini in this image. Rhea is about 1.4 million miles (2.3 million kilometers) from Cassini.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 27, 2009. Image scale is 4 miles (6 kilometers) per pixel on Titan and 9 miles (14 kilometers) per pixel on Rhea.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Princess Rhea and Her Entourage

NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured this image showing Saturn's icy moon Rhea taking center stage, with cameo appearances by Saturn's rings and three clearly visible moons. In this image, Dione appears just above Rhea. Tethys is the larger circle toward the upper left and Epimetheus is the smaller dot to the left of Rhea. Prometheus is to the left of Dione, but barely distinguishable as a speck embedded in the rings. This wide-angle image was taken on Jan. 11, 2011 from a distance of approximately 60,000 kilometers away (37,000 miles).

Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI