PIA08890: Cosmic Contrast


Cosmic Contrast

Caption:

Bright equatorial clouds give way to darker southern bands in this infrared Cassini spacecraft view taken with a filter sensitive to methane absorption in Saturn's atmosphere.

Delicate shadows cast onto the planet by its inner rings are visible at upper right. A portion of the same inner rings are seen at lower right.

The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of polarized infrared light. The view was acquired on Jan. 14, 2007 at a distance of approximately 976,000 kilometers (606,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 55 kilometers (34 miles) per pixel.

Background Info:

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org .

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Saturn
System Saturn
Target Type Planet
Mission Cassini-Huygens
Instrument Host Cassini Orbiter
Host Type Orbiter
Instrument Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS)
Detector Wide Angle Camera
Extra Keywords Atmosphere, Grayscale, Infrared, Methane, Shadow, Visual
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2007-03-06
Date in Caption 2007-01-14
Image Credit NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08890
Identifier PIA08890