* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Janus

Blobrana · L

Enceladus hangs in the distance as the pitted ring moon Janus, rounds the outer edge of the F ring.

Enceladus is remarkable for its actively venting south polar region, while Janus is known for its orbital swap with the moon Epimetheus.
The bright core of the F ring is perhaps 50 kilometres wide and contains numerous clumps and kinks. Dimmer, flanking ringlets on either side of the core wind into a tight spiral structure, discovered in Cassini images.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 21, 2006 at a distance of approximately 565,000 kilometres from Janus, 702,000 kilometres from Enceladus and 530,000 kilometres from Saturn.
The image scale is 3 kilometres per pixel on Janus and 4 kilometres per pixel on Enceladus.

Blobrana · L

Janus and Prometheus

Blobrana · L

RE: Janus

Blobrana · L

This view shows a thin crescent of Janus's dayside, plus much of the darkside. Part of the darkened terrain to the left is lit dimly by reflected light from Saturn, revealing craters there.
North on Janus is up in this image.
Janus is 181 kilometres across.

The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 2, 2005, at a distance of approximately 541,000 kilometres from Janus and at a Sun-Janus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 147 degrees.
Resolution in the original image was 3 kilometres per pixel.
The image has been contrast-enhanced and magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility.

Blobrana · L

This close-up look at Saturn's moon Janus reveals spots on the moon's surface which may be dark material exposed by impacts.

If the dark markings within bright terrain are indeed impact features, then Janus' surface represents a contrast with that of Saturn's moon Phoebe, where impacts have uncovered bright material beneath a darker overlying layer. Janus is 181 kilometres across.

Janus may be a porous body, composed mostly of water ice.

This image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 20, 2005, at a distance of approximately 357,000 kilometres from Janus and at a Sun-Janus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 6 degrees.
Resolution in the original image was 2 kilometres per pixel. The view was magnified by a factor of two and contrast-enhanced to aid visibility of the moon's surface.