Pan's Progress
Date: 16 Dec 2006

Pan is seen in this color view as it sweeps through the Encke Gap with its attendant ringlets. As the lemon-shaped little moon orbits Saturn, it always keeps its long axis pointed along a line toward the planet. From this vantage point, the dark side of the moon is visible.


This view looks toward Pan (26 km, or 16 miles across) within the Encke Gap (325 km, or 200 miles wide), on the unlit side of the rings, and from an inclination of about 33 degrees above the ringplane.


Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on 16 December 2006 at a distance of approximately 779,000 km (484,000 miles) from Pan and at a sun-Pan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 83 degrees. Image scale is 5 km (3 miles) per pixel.


Last Update: 20 Jun 2011 (AMB)

Credit: NASA