September 16, 2004 Saturn's ring shadows appear wrapped in a
harmonious symphony with the planet in this color view from the
Cassini spacecraft. Saturn and its rings would nearly fill the
space between Earth and the Moon. Yet, despite their great
breadth, the rings are a few meters thick and, in some places,
very translucent. This image shows a view through the C ring,
which is closest to Saturn, and through the Cassini division,
the 4,800-kilometer-wide gap (2,980-miles) that arcs across the
top of the image and separates the optically thick B ring from
the A ring. The part of the atmosphere seen through the gap
appears darker and more bluish due to scattering at blue
wavelengths by the cloud-free upper atmosphere. The different
colors in Saturn's atmosphere are due to particles whose
composition is yet to be determined. This image was obtained
with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on July 30,
2004, at a distance of 7.6 million kilometers (4.7 million
miles) from Saturn. The Cassini-Huygens mission