Contact: Joshua Colwell
colwell@lasp.colorado.edu
303-492-6805
University of Colorado at Boulder

Star-Crossed Rings

Caption: The image is a false-color ultraviolet view of Saturn's B ring (center) and A ring (right), separated by a large gap known as the Cassini Division and showing a bright horizontal streak created by a series of time-lapse images involving the star, 26 Taurus. The image was made over a nine-hour period as the star drifted behind the rings. The opacity of the outer A ring is most pronounced on its inner edge, indicating more ring debris is present there. The Encke Gap, much smaller than the Cassini Division, is visible near the outer edge of the A ring. The B ring is significantly more opaque than the A ring, indicating a greater density of ring material when imaged from above. The sky behind the rings glows red in the UV wavelengths from the hydrogen gas that fills the solar system. The images were processed by a CU-Boulder team from data taken by the UVIS instrument aboard the Cassini spacecraft in May 2005.

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Colorado

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