A new ring of material found


New ring found in orbit of moon Atlas
 
The image was taken by the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens spacecraft wide-angle camera on 1 July 2004, just after the spacecraft had crossed the ring plane following Saturn orbit insertion.

The maximum radial resolution is approximately 7 kilometres per pixel. The region from the A ring to the F ring spans some 3500 kilometres. The image has been enhanced to show the presence of faint ring material just beyond the edge of the A ring and in the orbit of Atlas (indicated by the dotted red line).

The moon Prometheus (102 kilometres across) can be seen close to the F ring at the lower left of the image.



Release date: 19 January 2005