* Astronomy

A new 1000km-wide ring arc has been discovered by the Cassini spacecraft.
The R/2006 S5 ring arc orbits close to the position of Methone.

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A new rings of Saturn

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This view shows the outer B ring, the Cassini Division and the inner part of the A ring.
The brightest feature in the Cassini Division is the recently discovered diffuse ringlet near the outer edge of the Division. The diffuse ringlet has a distinctive bluish cast.
The colour of the rings appears more golden than earlier in the mission because of the viewing geometry here -- increased scattering in the rings is brought about by the high phase angle and the view being toward the rings' unlit side.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 30 degrees above the ringplane.


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Credit NASA

Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural colour view. The images were acquired by the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 29, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.829 million kilometres from Saturn. Image scale is 11 kilometres per pixel.

The two prominent dark gaps in Saturn's A ring contain small embedded moons and a host of other intriguing features.

Here, three unique ringlets are visible in the Encke gap (325 kilometres wide). The innermost ringlet (topmost here) is faint but continuous. The centre ringlet brightens substantially toward upper left and displays a few slight kinks. This ringlet is coincident with the orbit of Pan (26 kilometres across). The outermost ringlet is discontinuous, with two bright regions visible.


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Credit NASA

The narrower Keeler gap (42 kilometres wide) hosts the moon Daphnis (7 kilometres across, not in this image), which raises waves in the gap edges as it orbits Saturn.
At lower left, faint ringlets flanking the bright F ring core are visible. These features were found by the Cassini spacecraft to be arranged into a spiral arm structure that winds around the planet like a spring. The spiral may be caused by tiny moonlets or clumps of material that have smashed through the F ring core and liberated material.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 23 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 11, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometres from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 151 degrees. Image scale is about 6 kilometres per pixel.