Tag Archives: janus

Janus, Saturn’s jagged moon

One of planet Saturn's moons Janus
One of planet Saturn’s moons Janus

At first sight, this looks more like a irregularly shaped piece of ‘space junk’ floating along than the moon of a planet. But in fact, this is Janus, one of Saturn’s moons. Named after the ancient Roman god of beginnings (which is why we start the Gregorian calendar with the month of January),  this 179 kilometers wide satellite was photographed by Cassini using its narrow angle camera from a distance of 87,000 kilometers. Barely visible at the bottom of the picture are Saturn’s F-rings.

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