Ring Shots
Cassini spies new bands, other features, around Saturn
By Ron Cowen
Add another glimmer of glamour to the icy jewels that adorn the outer solar system’s largest planet. On Sept. 15, the Cassini spacecraft spied two new rings around Saturn. The craft had an unusual viewpoint. It was in Saturn’s shadow on the opposite side of the planet from the sun. For 11 hours, as the sun lit the rings from behind, Cassini recorded the vast system of ice particles that stretches across a region of space greater than the distance between the Earth and its moon.
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The brilliant back lighting provided a rare opportunity for Cassini to see microscopic ring particles that are usually too faint to be recorded.