                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                 2024 June 1

                                Stereo Helene
    Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, ISS, JPL, ESA, NASA; Stereo Image
                            by Roberto Beltramini

   Explanation: Get out your red/blue glasses and float next to Helene,
   small, icy moon of Saturn. Appropriately named, Helene is a Trojan
   moon, so called because it orbits at a Lagrange point. A Lagrange point
   is a gravitationally stable position near two massive bodies, in this
   case Saturn and larger moon Dione. In fact, irregularly shaped ( about
   36 by 32 by 30 kilometers) Helene orbits at Dione's leading Lagrange
   point while brotherly ice moon Polydeuces follows at Dione's trailing
   Lagrange point. The sharp stereo anaglyph was constructed from two
   Cassini images captured during a close flyby in 2011. It shows part of
   the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Helene mottled with craters and
   gully-like features.

               Tomorrow's picture: both sides of Earth's Moon
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

