Surging Across the Rings

A surge in brightness appears on the rings directly opposite the Sun from the Cassini spacecraft. This "opposition surge" travels across the rings as the spacecraft watches.

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 9 degrees below the ringplane.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 12, 2007 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 853 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 524,374 kilometers (325,830 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 31 kilometers (19 miles) per pixel.

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08992