A Close up of Saturn’s Moon Prometheus On December 6th, the Cassini spacecraft snappe

A Close up of Saturn’s Moon Prometheus 

On December 6th, the Cassini spacecraft snapped the highest resolution image of Saturn’smoonPrometheus. Prometheus orbits just inside Saturn’s F ring, acting as a shepherd moon to maintain the shape of the ring. This image was taken 23,000 miles from Prometheus, focusing on the side of the moon that faces away from Saturn. In the background is the narrow F ring.

Prometheus was discovered in Voyager 1 images in 1980. As seen in the above image, its surface contains many ridges, valleys, and craters. Prometheus has a high albedo, which means that it reflects most of the light that hits its surface. As a result, Prometheus is believed to be a very icy body.

Image Credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute