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Enceladus Creating Saturn's E- Ring
The active moon Enceladus is shown here creating Saturn's E- ring. The picture was taken in 2006 by the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft. Enceladus is the dark spot inside the bright flare, right near the center of Saturn's E ring. Streams of ice and water vapor can be seen pouring off Enceladus into the E ring. This bright image of the normally faint E-ring was made possible by aligning Cassini so that Saturn blocked the Sun. From that perspective, small ring particles reflect incoming sunlight more efficiently.