NASA has shared a stunning new image of Rhea, the second largest moon of the gas giant Saturn.
Water ice on Rhea’s surface makes it bright in full sunlight. North on Rhea is up and rotated 36 degrees to the right. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.
Rhea is 949 miles (1,527 km) in diameter, making it the ninth-largest moon in our Solar System.
It was discovered on December 23, 1672 by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini.
Rhea takes 4.518 Earth days to rotate around Saturn and to complete one spin on its own axis.
Like many moons in the outer Solar System, Rhea appears dazzlingly bright in full sunlight.
This is the signature of the water ice that forms most of the moon’s surface.
Subtle albedo variations across the disk of the moon hint at past geologic activity.
Rhea is also one of the oldest and most heavily cratered satellites in the Solar System.
Its craters are the result of 4.6 billion years of bombardment by small bodies.
With very little erosion, the scars and craters remain unless they are overwritten by other, newer impacts.
This image of Rhea was taken in ultraviolet light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 3, 2016.
The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 365,000 miles (587,000 km) from Rhea.
