CICLOPS: Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS
Saturn ... Four Years On

Saturn ... Four Years On
PIA 11141
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   As Saturn advances in its orbit toward equinox and the sun gradually moves northward on the planet, the motion of Saturn's ring shadows and the changing colors of its atmosphere continue to transform the face of Saturn as seen by Cassini.

This captivating natural color view was created from images collected shortly after Cassini began its extended Equinox Mission in July 2008. It can be contrasted with earlier images from the spacecraft's four-year prime mission that show the shadow of Saturn's rings first draped high over the planet's northern hemisphere, then shifted southward as northern summer changed to spring (see PIA 06606and PIA 09793). During this time, the colors of the northern hemisphere have evolved from azure blue to a multitude of muted-colored bands.

This mosaic combines 30 images -- 10 each of red, green and blue light -- taken over the course of approximately two hours as Cassini panned its wide-angle camera across the entire planet and ring system on July 23, 2008, from a southerly elevation of 6 degrees.

Six moons complete this constructed panorama: Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles, across), Janus (179 kilometers, or 111 miles, across), Mimas (396 kilometers, or 246 miles, across), Pandora (81 kilometers, or 50 miles, across), Epimetheus (113 kilometers, or 70 miles, across) and Enceladus (504 kilometers, or 313 miles, across).

Cassini captured these images at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (690,000 miles) from Saturn and at a sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 20 degrees. Image scale is 70 kilometers (43.6 miles) per pixel.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The imaging team consists of scientists from the US, England, France, and Germany. The imaging operations center and team lead (Dr. C. Porco) are based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Released: April 2, 2009 (PIA 11141)
Image/Caption Information


Alliance Member Comments
Dragon_of_Luck_Mah_Jonng1971 (Jan 1, 2009 at 2:07 PM):
A beautiful picture with many details of the southern hemisphere. Now, close to its equinox, the bluish hues of the northern hemisphere have disappeared almost completely.

The first 6 months of the Extended Mission contained the very close Enceladus Flybys that were very important. One of them was at only 25 km of altitude showing that 4 years after Saturn arrival the Cassini Team is able to maneuvre its spacecraft very precisely indeed. All these important Enc flybys were successful.
Red_dragon (Dec 31, 2008 at 1:52 AM):
One more thing on color pics: the caption of this MESSENGER image is really worth to read: http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?page=2&gallery_id=2&image_id=234
Red_dragon (Dec 30, 2008 at 1:05 PM):
A SUPERB way to end the year with this nearly "Voyager Redux" image; one that makes a good comparison is: http://ciclops.org/view/3744/The_View_from_Iapetus

Happy new year to both CICLOPS and the good people of Sector 6, and if you can take a look at Saturn with a telescope; its rings can be seen nearly edge-on.