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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This is a narrow-angle camera image of Saturn's rings taken after the successful completion of the orbit insertion burn when the spacecraft had crossed the ring plane and was looking upwards at the sunlit face of the rings.
The image shows details in the Encke Gap (325 kilometres) in Saturn's A ring. The centre of the gap lies at a distance of 133 600 kilometres from Saturn. The image shows a ring in the centre of the gap.
The wavy inner edge of the gap and the wake-like structures emanating from its inner edge are caused by the tiny moon Pan that orbits in the middle of the gap. Two fainter ring features are also visible in the gap region.
Cassini-Huygens was approximately 195 000 kilometres above the ring plane when the image was obtained. Image scale is approximately 1 kilometre per pixel.