Saturn as Seen from Iapetus (IMAGE)

Washington University in St. Louis

Saturn as Seen from Iapetus

Caption

Saturn was photographed from near Iapetus by Cassini on Sept. 10, 2007, as the spacecraft prepared for its final approach to the moon. The spacecraft is about 3.3 million kilometers (2.1 million miles) from Saturn. As the image shows, Iapetus's orbit is tilted with respect to Saturn's. Since Saturn's other moons orbit in the same plane as the planet, they "see" Saturn's rings edge-on.

Credit

NASA/JPL/SSI

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