Cassini spacecraft glimpses new views of moon Rhea

KNKX Public Radio | By The Associated Press

Published March 12, 2012 at 4:11 PM PDT

NASA's Cassini spacecraft took this raw, unprocessed image of Saturn's moon Rhea on March 10, 2012. The camera was pointing toward Rhea at approximately 26,019 miles (41,873 kilometers) away.

PASADENA, Calif. — The pockmarked surface of Saturn's second-largest moon has come into sharper focus in new images released by NASA.

The space agency on Monday releasedthe new views of the moon Rhea, which were captured by the international Cassini spacecraft during a recent flyby. One of its cameras spied two huge impact basins and other geologic features on Rhea's icy surface from 26,000 miles away last week.

Cassini, funded by NASA and the European and Italian space agencies, was launched in 1997. It reached Saturn in 2004 and has been studying the ringed planet and its numerous moons.

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