
Images here show the sunlit side of Saturn's rings. A strip along the bottom of each image has been filtered so that the textures are more visible. The filter consists of averaging and then subtracting out the major brightness variations across the scene. The images illustrate how textures in Saturn's rings differ, even in close proximity. Cassini had previously discovered that straw-like clumpy textures are visible in the troughs of the strongest density waves, such as the Janus 6:5 wave in the outer A ring (at top of Figure 1A). Images from Cassini's Ring Grazing Orbits show that similar clumpy textures are also visible in the troughs of medium-size density waves, such as the (left to right) Prometheus 26:25, 27:26 and 28:27 waves, also in the outer A ring (Figure 1B). Strawlike texture is apparent in one band of the inner A ring but not surrounding regions (Figure 1C). Feathery texture is seen in some bands of the outer B ring, but not surrounding regions (Figure 1D). Figure 1E, which is an update of an image previously released as PIA21618, shows Plateau P1, where three textures are visible in close proximity to each other. (See PIA03550 for a labeled diagram of the rings.) The images in this montage were taken in visible light, using the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23168
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NASA ID
PIA23168
Date Created
June 13, 2019
Center
JPL
Media Type
image
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