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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Images of Saturn's moon Iapetus taken with infrared (centred at 930 nanometres), green (568 nanometres), and ultraviolet light (338 nanometres) filters were combined to create this image.
The use of colour on Iapetus is particularly helpful for discriminating between shadows (which appear black) and the intrinsically dark terrain (which appears brownish).
The view was obtained with the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini narrow-angle camera on 31 December 2004, at a distance of about 172,900 kilometres from Iapetus. Resolution achieved in the original image was 1 kilometre per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility of surface features.