Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Rhea, Moon of Saturn
Daily gems being posted at the Cassini web site, including a nice shot of Rhea. The caption and exposure suggest the moon is sun-drenched, but at Saturn, that's a bit of an exaggeration. Sunlight is only 1-2% of what we get on Earth, so the light level on the sunny side of things out there is only about as bright as earthly twilight. By varying exposures, the Cassini imaging team can focus on fine ring structure, surface details, or pick out a hard-to-find speck of a small moon from the inky black of space.
