Sunday 18 December 2016

Saturn's Moons Enceladus And Tethys Pose For Incredible Family Photo




The latest image from NASA shows an incredible family photo: Enceladus and Tethys, two of Saturn's moons, lined up so it almost looks like a bullseye in space. 

That's Enceladus in the foreground, which is about 313 miles across, and "big brother" Tethys is behind it and is more than double the size, or 660 miles across:

 


The image, which also shows the rings of Saturn, was captured in September by the narrow-angle camera on the Cassini spacecraft. NASA said it was about 1.3 million miles from Enceladus and 1.6 million miles from Tethys when it snapped the photo.

Cassini, which was launched in 1997, has been studying both Saturn and its many moons since it entered the planet's orbit in 2004. In September, the spacecraft found that Enceladus has a "global ocean" sitting just beneath its icy surface

Saturn has 62 known moons, including nine that haven't been named yet. NASA says scientists continue to discover new moons orbiting the planet. 

Cassini is a cooperative project between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. You can follow its mission online here.

 

Also on HuffPost:

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