High-Phase in the Darkness: Janus and Epimetheus

This close pairing of Janus and Epimetheus shows the 2 moons at "high phase," meaning that only a thin sliver of sunlit terrain is visible on each moon. Portions of each are also lit feebly by reflected light from Saturn.

Janus (181 Km, or about 113 miles across) is at top and Epimetheus (116 Km, or about 72 miles across) is below.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 25, 2005, at a distance of approx. 479.000 Km(roughly 298.000 miles) from Janus and about 455,000 Km (roughly 283.000 miles) from Epimetheus. The image scale is about 3 Km (approx 2 miles) per pixel on both moons.