PIA07555: Atmospheric Illusion


Atmospheric Illusion

Caption:

Believe it or not, this extreme close-up of Saturn's swirling clouds was acquired from more than one million kilometers (621,370 miles) from the gas giant planet. The rings' image is severely bent by atmospheric refraction as they pass behind the planet.

The dark region in the rings is the 4,800-kilometer-wide (2,980 mile) Cassini Division.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 25, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1 million kilometers (600,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Saturn Cassini Division, Saturn Rings
System Saturn
Target Type Planet Gap, Ring
Mission Cassini-Huygens
Instrument Host Cassini Orbiter
Host Type Orbiter
Instrument Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS)
Detector Narrow Angle Camera
Extra Keywords Atmosphere, Grayscale, Visual
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2005-08-02
Date in Caption 2005-06-25
Image Credit NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07555
Identifier PIA07555