The giant's shadow

Now, in southern summer, Saturn's shadow stretches across the sunlit southern surface of its rings. Saturn's moon Janus orbits just outside of the main rings and appears below them in this scene. Janus is absolutely dwarfed by the bulk of its gigantic parent. Janus is 181 kilometres across.

Bands of ring material within the Cassini Division are visible here, near the outer edge of the bright B ring. The planet's night side is visible at the right. This view is from Cassini's vantage point beneath the ring plane.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini wide-angle camera on 17 January 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometres from Saturn. The image scale is 66 kilometres per pixel. Janus was brightened by a factor of two, and contrast in the scene was enhanced to aid visibility.