PIA09001: Cloud Phantoms


Cloud Phantoms

Caption:

Bright, circular cloud features waltz through the turbid atmosphere of Saturn in this Cassini spacecraft view.

Several jets/bands appear in this image (center and upper right). In contrast to the circular cloud features, these clouds appear thin and linear.

The image was taken using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 750 nanometers. The view was obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 8, 2007 at a distance of approximately 2.9 million kilometers (1.8 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 17 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel.

Background Info:

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/home/index.cfm . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org .

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Saturn
System
Target Type Planet
Mission Cassini-Huygens
Instrument Host Cassini Orbiter
Host Type Orbiter
Instrument Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS)
Detector Narrow Angle Camera
Extra Keywords Atmosphere, Grayscale, Infrared, Visual
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2007-08-08
Date in Caption 2007-07-08
Image Credit NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09001
Identifier PIA09001