CICLOPS: Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS
Shadow of Demarcation

Saturn's rings cast a dramatic shadow separating the blues and greens of the planet's northern hemisphere from the creamy pastels coloring the southern hemisphere.

This mosaic combines 6 images -- 2 each of red, green and blue spectral filters -- to create this natural color view. The images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 30, 2008 at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (734,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 30 degrees. Image scale is 67 kilometers (42 miles) per pixel.

The Cassini Equinox Mission is a joint United States and European endeavor. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. 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 Equinox Mission visit http://ciclops.org, http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Released: March 20, 2009 (PIA 11453)
Image/Caption Information 		  Shadow of Demarcation
PIA 11453
Avg Rating: 8.91/10

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Alliance Member Comments
Dragon_of_Luck_Mah_Jonng1971 (May 3, 2009 at 6:26 PM):
In this image we're seeing a lot of hues of Saturn's principal yellow color. In the southern temperate zone ( or belt ) I'm seeing a dark storm system ( Perhaps it could be the 'blue-eyed storm' . ) Northwest to it there is another, bright storm system. In the northern temperate zone I'm seeing two very long cloud bands - I think they could be jet streams.
Red_dragon (Mar 20, 2009 at 2:12 PM):
A great image, and even more greater when one compares it with alike images taken during past years