Enigmatic Moon Mimas Bathes in 'Saturnshine'

NASA’s Cassini mission around Saturn has given us a very privileged view of the gas giant, its beautiful rings and rich variety of moons. Along the way, it has also treated us to some stunning Saturnian phenomena. In this dreamy view across Saturn’s rings, the small moon Mimas can be seen, but it is strangely illuminated by a phenomenon known as “Saturnshine.”

Our own moon exhibits “Earthshine” when the position of the sun and Earth are just right for us to see the double reflection of sunlight — light is reflected off our planet and then that light reflects off the moon’s surface, often producing a dim glow when much of the lunar disk is otherwise in shadow.

And this is exactly what is happening to Mimas here; sunlight is reflected off Saturn’s upper atmosphere, casting a weak glow across the 250 mile-wide moon.

In a news release, NASA notes that, to better illustrate the effect of Saturnshine, Mimas “has had its brightness enhanced by a factor of 2.5 relative to the rings.”

The result is a beautiful portrait of a little cratered moon, highlighted by the reflected light from its parent planet Saturn.

This observation was made by Cassini on Feb. 16 when the spacecraft was approximately 1.6 million miles from Mimas.

From Discovery News