NASA shares stunning image of Creusa's rays on Saturn's moon 'Dione'

Photo Credit: NASA

New Delhi: The US space agency, NASA has released a breathtaking view of rayed crater on Saturn's moon, Dione.

According to NASA, when viewed from a distance with the Sun directly behind Cassini, the larger, brighter craters really stand out on moons like Dione.

As per reports, some larger crater leave bright ray patterns across the moon, calling attention to their existence and to the violence of their creation.
The rayed crater seen on Dione (698 miles, or 1,123 kilometers across) is named Creusa. The rays are brighter material blasted out by the impact that formed the crater. Scientists can use the patterns of ejecta (like these rays), to help determine the order of geological events on a moon's surface by examining which features lie on top of other features.

The image was taken with NASA's Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on November 26, 2016 by using a spectral filter which preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 727 nanometers.

The view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Dione. North on Dione is up and rotated 31 degrees to the right.

It was obtained at a distance of approximately 350,000 miles (560,000 kilometers) from Dione. Image scale is 1.8 miles (3 kilometers) per pixel.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency.