[X] My Assistant

[ugordan]

Apparently, I stumbled across a temporary version of the Cassini home page that had a true color composite of Titan and Enceladus crescents, a very old one from the raws. It linked to some new movies here.

The five or so new ones are at the top of the page.

Meanwhile, a couple of minutes later the image entry was removed. I guess that's tomorrow's release that somehow slipped through. The image itself wasn't even up on the Photojournal.

[Pertinax]

Thank you Dilo, Bjorn, and all;

My first reaction was that this was a 'sub-sun', but after being pressed a little to think about it, an opposition effect explanation seemed more reasonable.

With the slight possibility of the E Ring (thanks to Enceladus' spewing), I doubt there would be plate or columnar ice crystals in any of the rings -- thus, no noteworthy refractive effects are likely.

Any disagreements:


-- Pertinax

[dilo]

Another nice opposition movie through A/B rings (note the difference in the backscatter from the two rings, A is a lot weaker)

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[ugordan]

(note the difference in the backscatter from the two rings, A is a lot weaker)

I'd be careful about making such conclusions based only on raw images. The visual result will vary greatly depending on the amount of stretch applied to the raw image. If it's a bland ring region region it will be stretched more heavily, exaggerating the opposition effect.

[dilo]

Gordan, you are right about raw images limitations.
Anyway, I taken two rapresentative pictures (W00020310 and W00020312) and put toghether, trying to align stretch through gamma+luminosity+contrast change:

Result is not perfect, but in my opinion confirms a difference...