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Jewels...
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The real jewels of Saturn are arguably its stunning collection of icy moons. Seen here with the unlit side of the Rings are Titan (Dx), Tethys (Sx) and Enceladus (Cn) with its fountain-like geysers.
The faint, vertical banding in the image is due to "noise" in the spacecraft electronics. This noise is difficult to remove from an image that has a very wide dynamic range - i.e.: a wide range of brightness levels - as in the difference between gleaming Titan and the faint plumes of Enceladus.
Additionally, a reflection of Titan's light within the camera optics is likely responsible for the faint secondary image of Titan's limb to the left of the giant moon.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 10, 2006 at a distance of approx. 3,9 MKM (about 2,4 MMs) from Enceladus; 5,3 MKM (about 3,3 MMs) from Titan and 4,4 MKM (such as approx. 2,7 MMs) from Tethys.
The phase angle is 160° on Enceladus.
Image scale is 23 kilometers (14 miles) per pixel on Enceladus, 32 kilometers (20 miles) per pixel on Titan and 26 kilometers (16 miles) per pixel on Tethys.
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