Fact Sheet
First Encounter
The Cassini spacecraft snapped this image of Saturn's moon Phoebe as it flew past the moon on Friday. It was the first of almost 80 close passes by Saturn and its moons for Cassini, which will enter orbit around Saturn on June 30. This was Cassini's only scheduled pass by Phoebe, though, because it orbits so far from Saturn. The picture shows an old surface battered by impacts with countless asteroids or moonlets. Cassini's instruments also measured the composition of Phoebe's surface, which will help scientists understand its formation and evolution. [NASA/JPL]
|