NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captures two small Saturn moons’ image

NASA's Cassini spacecraft was able to capture the images of Saturn's moons that are hiding from the planet's massive rings. The new image was taken around 3.4 million miles away from the larger moon, Atlas (at the upper left corner of the image below). The second moon, Pan is located near the planet in the Encke Gap of the A Ring (bottom right side of the image)

The Cassini spacecraft's narrow-angle camera took the image in visible light at a scale of 21 miles per pixel on July 9. Pan, which is orbiting closer to the planet, travels faster than its distant counterpart, Atlas.

The image shows that the Pan has not yet overtaken Atlas. However, based on the basic rule defined by Johannes Kepler, the smaller moon which is located much closer to the planet will soon left the larger one behind, Daily Mail reported.

In the past months, Cassini spacecraft has captured many images of Saturn, which includes a mysterious glowing spot in the planet's B ring. However, NASA stated that the spot is just an optical illusion from the Sun's alignment with the craft.

The agency stated that the position of the Sun behind and observer that is facing towards the planet's ring creates a "region of opposition" where the shadows of the ring particles that is facing the sun from the Cassini fall behind those seen from the craft.

The spacecraft reached Saturn in 12 years ago, and the craft has only one year left to orbit the planet. Based on the US space agency's schedule the spacecraft's journey will end on September 2017, The TeCake reported.

The Cassini spacecraft mission is a project of NASA along with the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency. The mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington is being managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a California Institute of Technology's division in Pasadena.

Meanwhile, here is a video that tells 10 facts about Saturn:

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Saturn, Nasa