|What do Saturn's rings look like from the dark side? From
Earth, we usually see Saturn's rings from the same side of the
ring plane that the Sun illuminates them -- one might call this
the bright side. Geometrically, in the above picture taken in
August by the robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting the Sun is
behind the camera but on the other side of the ring plane. Such
a vantage point gives a breathtaking views of the most splendid
ring system in the Solar System. Strangely, the rings have
similarities to a photographic negative of a front view. For
example, the dark band in the middle is actually the normally
bright B-ring. The ring brightness as recorded from different
angles indicates ring thickness and particle density of ring
particles. At the top left of the frame is Saturn's moon Tethys,
which although harder to find, contains much more mass than the
entire ring system. Cassini Imaging Team,