Cassini peeks at Saturn's relatively dark south pole, providing an up-close look at the haze-free upper atmosphere there.
The banded structure around the pole seems to be superimposed on the characteristic high-latitude, mottled, turbulent structure (the white puffs of cloud near the pole), suggesting that the banding is a shallow, not deep, feature.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 23, 2005, through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of polarized infrared light at a distance of approximately 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel.
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 | Narrow Angle Camera | |
Extra Keywords | Atmosphere, Grayscale, Haze, Infrared, Visual | |
Acquisition Date | ||
Release Date | 2005-05-26 | |
Date in Caption | 2005-04-23 | |
Image Credit | NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute | |
Source | photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06657 | |
Identifier | PIA06657 |