* Astronomy

Recent Cassini spacecraft images show arcs of material co-orbiting with the Saturnian moons Anthe and Methone.


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Credit:    NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Cassini imaging scientists believe the process that maintains the Anthe and Methone arcs is similar to that which maintains the arc in the G ring. The general brightness of the image (along with the faint horizontal banding pattern) results from the long exposure time of 15 seconds required to capture the extremely faint ring arc and the processing needed to enhance its visibility (which also enhances the digital background noise in the image). The image was digitally processed to remove most of the background noise. This view looks toward the un-illuminated side of the rings from about 2 degrees above the ringplane.

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