# @nasa on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DFa8JqZzxpK
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/26314384-nasa-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/7ccf5ceee7.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-01-29T19:17:38.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA (@NASA) — https://gondola.cc/NASA

## Caption

Vintage with a twist – er… tilt.⁣
 ⁣
Voyager 2 captured this image of Saturn and two of its moons, Rhea and Dione, on July 21, 1981. In this picture, Rhea is below and to the left of Saturn, while Dione is directly below the massive planet.⁣
 ⁣
Rhea looks itty-bitty in this picture, yet it’s Saturn’s second-largest moon! Rhea is small, cold, and airless - very similar to sister moons Dione, pictured here, and Tethys. How cold is Rhea? It’s as “warm” as -281ºF (-174ºC) in sunlit areas, ranging down to -364ºF (-220ºC) in the shade.⁣
 ⁣
Rhea appeared as a tiny dot to astronomers until the Voyager (1 and 2) encounters in 1980 and 1981. The Voyager images showed that Rhea’s features could be divided into two regions: heavily cratered terrain with craters larger than 25 miles (40 kilometers) across and a second type of area in parts of the polar and equatorial region with craters less than 25 miles (40 kilometers) across. This difference may indicate there was a major resurfacing event some time in Rhea’s history.⁣
 ⁣
Dione is Saturn’s fourth-largest moon. It also has terrain with varying amounts of craters, along with fractured areas that often cut through its plains and craters. These fractures suggest Dione experienced tectonic activity in its past. The fractured areas are seen in Voyager images as bright and thin wispy lines. Later, flybys by our Cassini spacecraft showed these “wisps” as bright canyon ice walls.⁣
 ⁣
Rhea and Dione were both discovered by Giovanni Cassini, and both get their names from Greek mythology.⁣
 ⁣
Image description: Saturn is tilted to the side in this image. It is yellowish, with a brighter, buttery yellow at its middle, where the planet’s rings surround it. Below Saturn are two small dots: These are two of its moons, Rhea and Dione. They all stand out against the darkness of space.⁣
 ⁣
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech⁣
 ⁣
#NASA #Saturn #Rhea #Dione #Astronomy #Voyager #Cassini

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 639,615
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 1,480

## Tags

voyager, astronomy, rhea, dione, nasa, cassini, saturn

---
Copyright (c) Gondola