Encke Gap Ringlets

Kinky, discontinuous ringlets, occupy the Encke Gap in Saturn's A ring in the middle of this Cassini spacecraft image.

During the planet's August 2009 equinox, parts of these thin ringlets cast shadows onto the A ring (see PIA11676).

This view looks toward the northern, unilluminated side of the rings from about 17 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on January 8, 2010. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 9 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute