Wide Shadows

Image courtesy Caltech/SSI/NASA

Saturn’s moon Tethys seems to hover under the planet’s rings in a newly released picture from NASA’s Cassini orbiter. Due to the angle of sunlight, the rings cast dark, wide shadows across the planet that help underscore the midsize moon.

Named for a Greek sea goddess, Tethys was discovered in the late 1600s by Italian-French astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini. Seen up close, the icy moon is heavily cratered and crisscrossed by troughs.