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 shifting southward as northern
summer changed to spring (see PIA06606 and PIA09793). 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).
NASA's Cassini spacecraft 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 mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The
Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and
assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space
Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team
homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
