Cassini Captures Amazing View of Dione

With each new image the NASA Cassini orbiter sends back, I appreciate the spacecraft more and more. For almost 8 years now, the probe has been conducting various experiments around Saturn, its rings and it moons, and the latest view it captured of Dione proves its worth yet again.

This time, the small moon was captured with parts of the gas giant in its background, while the two appeared askew. The celestial body is only 1,123 kilometers (698 miles) in diameter, and yet it has been extensively studied by astronomers.

Mission managers used the visible green light on Cassini wide-angle camera to capture this image, in optical wavelengths. Cassini was about 57,000 kilometers (35,000 miles) away from the moon when the photo was snapped.

What I find interesting is the perspective this image has. It was taken from a vantage point less than one degree above the plane of Saturn's rings, which makes the viewer feel as if he or she is right inside the planet's majestic ring system.