NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has captured a rare family photo of three of Saturn’s moons: Titan, Mimas and Rhea.
This image shows Saturn’s moons Titan, Mimas (center bottom) and Rhea (upper left). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.
Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and the largest object in this image.
Also known as Saturn VI, it appears fuzzy because we only see its cloud layers.
And because its atmosphere refracts light around Titan, its crescent ‘wraps’ just a little further around the moon than it would on an airless body.
Rhea, the second largest moon of Saturn, appears rough because its icy surface is heavily cratered.
And a close inspection of Mimas, the smallest and innermost of Saturn’s major moons, shows surface irregularities due to its own violent history.
This image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 25, 2015.
At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was 1.2 million miles (2.0 million km) from Titan, 1.9 million miles (3.1 million km) from Mimas, and 2.2 million miles (3.5 million km) from Rhea.
