H Aφροδίτη μέσα από τους δακτυλίους του Κρόνου. Cassini Spies Bright Venus From Saturn Orbit

Peering over the shoulder of giant Saturn, through its rings, and across interplanetary space, NASA's Cassini spacecraft spies the bright, cloudy terrestrial planet, Venus. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute

Το διαστημικό σκάφος Cassini που εξερευνά τον Κρόνο και τους δορυφόρους του, κατάφερε να φωτογραφίσει τον πλανήτη Αφροδίτη μέσα από τους δακτυλίους του Κρόνου. Η παραπάνω φωτογραφία ελήφθη τον περασμένο Νοέμβριο, καθώς το Cassini απείχε 802000 χιλιόμετρα από τον Κρόνο.

A distant world gleaming in sunlight, Earth's twin planet, Venus, shines like a bright beacon in images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn.

                                     

One special image of Venus and Saturn (top of the page) was taken last November when Cassini was placed in the shadow of Saturn. This allowed Cassini to look in the direction of the sun and Venus, and take a backlit image of Saturn and its rings in a particular viewing geometry called "high solar phase." This observing position reveals details about the rings and Saturn's atmosphere that cannot be seen in lower solar phase.

Venus appears just off the edge of Saturn, in the upper part of the image, directly above the white streak of Saturn's G ring.

One of the Venus and Saturn images being released today is a combination of separate red, green and blue images covering the planet and main rings and processed to produce true color. Last December, a false-color version of the mosaic was released.

Venus appears just off the edge of Saturn, in the upper part of the image, directly above the white streak of Saturn's G ring. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Another image, taken in January, captures Venus just beyond the limb of Saturn and in close proximity to Saturn's G ring, a thin ring just beyond the main Saturnian rings. The diffuse E ring, which is outside the G ring and created by the spray of the moon Enceladus, also is visible.

Η επόμενη φωτογραφία λήφθηκε στις 4 Ιανουαρίου 2013, όταν το Cassini απείχε από τον Κρόνο 597.000 χιλιόμετρα.