This Voyager 2 wide-angle photograph of the shadow of Neptune on the rings was taken Aug. 25, 1989 from a distance of 660,000 kilometers (412,000 miles). Because Neptune's pole is tilted toward the sun by about 27 degrees, Neptune's shadow casts a curved profile on the rings which does not quite reach out to the outermost ring at about 38,000 kilometers (24,000 miles) from the cloudtops. In this photo taken through the clear filter at a phase angle of about 135 degrees, the shadow does fall on the inner bright ring [at about 28,000 kilometers (18,000 miles) from the cloudtops]. The shadow also clearly delineates the radial extent of the broad sheet of material discovered extending from about halfway between the bright rings down to, and perhaps beyond the inner bright ring. A very thin, brighter component of the edge of this diffuse sheet can also be seen. Additional information from other images indicates that this faint material extends further in, to at least the position of the innermost faint ring discovered at about 17,000 kilometers (11,000 miles) from the cloudtops. The Voyager Mission is conducted by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications.
