The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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The images that make up this composition were obtained from Cassini-Huygens's vantage point beneath the ring plane with the narrow-angle camera on 21 June 2004, at a distance of 6.4 million kilometres from Saturn.
The image scale is 38 kilometres per pixel. The brightest part of the rings, curving from the upper right to the lower left in the image, is the B ring. Many bands throughout the B ring have a pronounced sandy colour.
Other colour variations across the rings can be seen. Colour variations in Saturn's rings have previously been seen in Voyager and Hubble Space Telescope images. These Cassini-Huygens images show that colour variations in the rings are more pronounced in this viewing geometry than they are when seen from Earth.