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File:PIA17218 – A Farewell to Saturn, Brightened Version.jpg

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English: After more than 13 years at Saturn, and with its fate sealed, NASA's Cassini spacecraft bid farewell to the Saturnian system by firing the shutters of its wide-angle camera and capturing this last, full mosaic of Saturn and its rings two days before the spacecraft's dramatic plunge into the planet's atmosphere. During the observation, a total of 80 wide-angle images were acquired in just over two hours. This view is constructed from 42 of those wide-angle shots, taken using the red, green and blue spectral filters, combined and mosaicked together to create a natural-color view. Six of Saturn's moons -- Enceladus, Epimetheus, Janus, Mimas, Pandora and Prometheus -- make a faint appearance in this image. (Numerous stars are also visible in the background.)

A second version of the mosaic is provided in which the planet and its rings have been brightened, with the fainter regions brightened by a greater amount. (The moons and stars have also been brightened by a factor of 15 in this version.) The ice-covered moon Enceladus -- home to a global subsurface ocean that erupts into space -- can be seen at the 1 o'clock position. Directly below Enceladus, just outside the F ring (the thin, farthest ring from the planet seen in this image) lies the small moon Epimetheus. Following the F ring clock-wise from Epimetheus, the next moon seen is Janus. At about the 4:30 position and outward from the F ring is Mimas. Inward of Mimas and still at about the 4:30 position is the F-ring-disrupting moon, Pandora. Moving around to the 10 o'clock position, just inside of the F ring, is the moon Prometheus.

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 15 degrees above the ring plane. Cassini was approximately 698,000 miles (1.1 million kilometers) from Saturn, on its final approach to the planet, when the images in this mosaic were taken. Image scale on Saturn is about 42 miles (67 kilometers) per pixel. The image scale on the moons varies from 37 to 50 miles (59 to 80 kilometers) pixel. The phase angle (the Sun-planet-spacecraft angle) is 138 degrees. The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and https://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at https://ciclops.org.

Deutsch: Nach mehr als 13 Jahren am Saturn verabschiedete sich das NASA-Raumschiff Cassini vom Saturnsystem, indem es die Blenden seiner Weitwinkelkamera ausnutzte und dieses letzte, vollständige Mosaik des Saturn und seiner Ringe zwei Tage vor dem dramatischen Eintauchen des Raumschiffs in die Atmosphäre des Planeten festhielt. Während der Beobachtung wurden in etwas mehr als zwei Stunden insgesamt 80 Weitwinkelaufnahmen gemacht. Diese Ansicht besteht aus 42 dieser Weitwinkelaufnahmen, die mit den roten, grünen und blauen Spektralfiltern aufgenommen, kombiniert und mosaikartig zusammengefügt wurden, um eine natürliche Farbansicht zu erzeugen. Die sechs Monde des Saturns - Enceladus, Epimetheus, Janus, Mimas, Pandora und Prometheus - erscheinen in diesem Bild schwach. (Zahlreiche Sterne sind auch im Hintergrund sichtbar.)

Diese Ansicht schaut auf die sonnenbeleuchtete Seite der Ringe aus etwa 15 Grad über der Ringebene. Cassini war etwa 1,1 Millionen Kilometer vom Saturn entfernt, als die Bilder in diesem Mosaik aufgenommen wurden. Die Bildgröße auf Saturn beträgt 67 Kilometer pro Pixel. Die Bildgröße auf den Monden variiert zwischen 59 und 80 Kilometern pro Pixel. Der Phasenwinkel (der Winkel zwischen Sonne und Planet und Raumfahrzeug) beträgt 138 Grad. Die Raumsonde Cassini beendete ihre Mission am 15. September 2017.

Die Cassini-Mission ist ein Kooperationsprojekt der NASA, der ESA (Europäische Weltraumorganisation) und der italienischen Weltraumorganisation. Das Jet Propulsion Laboratory, eine Abteilung von Caltech in Pasadena, leitet die Mission für das Science Mission Directorate der NASA in Washington. Der Cassini-Orbiter und seine beiden Onboard-Kameras wurden bei JPL entworfen, entwickelt und montiert. Das Zentrum für bildgebende Verfahren hat seinen Sitz am Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
Date (published 21 November 2017)
Source Catalog page · Full-res (JPEG · TIFF)
Author NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute
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This image or video was catalogued by Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: PIA17218.

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Credit and attribution belongs to the Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) team, NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

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Public domain This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)
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