Moon Trio

Taken at a distance of 1.3 million miles, this image shows Saturn dwarfing its three visible moons on December 7, 2011. The largest moon shown here is Tethys, which measures 660 miles across, or about the same distance as a drive along California's coast. Tethys is visible below the rings on the right side of the image.

On the left side of the image, below the rings, is Enceladus, a mere 313 miles across.

The third moon, Pandora, is barely visible in this view. With a diameter of only 50 miles, this moon appears as a small grey speck sitting atop the rings on the left edge of the image. It had to be brightened in relation to the rest of the image in order to be seen. A Pandora-length roadtrip would be little more than a drive from L.A. to the beach and back.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute