Cassini scientists have identified the presence of a previously unknown moonlet within Saturn’s thin G-ring, as seen in this series of photos spanning about ten minutes of time. The moonlet, only about a third of a mile wide, is the bright streak traveling in the center of the ring. (The other streaks are overexposed stars in…
Category: Saturn
Saturn’s Southern Cyclone
A great spiraling whirlpool of wind-whipped clouds wraps around Saturn’s southern pole, photographed here in polarized infrared light by Cassini on July 15, 2008. Towering white clouds mark areas of rising heat from deep within the atmosphere. The winds around the vortex have been measured at over 300mph (480 km/h). This photo shows an area…
Glamour Shot
A nicely-modeled Mimas, in sunlit backlighting and a soft cast from reflected light off Saturn. Taken by the Cassini orbiter on January 23 at a distance of 316,ooo miles. (Mimas is about 246 miles wide.) Image credit NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Stormy Skies
A blue-tinted circular storm blemishes Saturn’s creamy complexion while wispy rings slice the planet with their shadows. This photo, shown in true color, was taken by Cassini’s wide-angle camera at an orbiting distance of 662,000 miles. Saturn is mostly atmosphere, and a stormy one at that, made of hydrogen, helium and traces of ammonia and…
Ancient Scars
Old craters are overlapped by younger ones in this image of Saturn’s moon Rhea, taken by the Cassini orbiter on August 29, 2008 and released today. The 950-mile-wide moon holds the distinction as the only known moon to have its own set of rings: a thin, scattered version of its parent’s signature trait. Perhaps…
Prometheus Unbound
One of several tiny “shepherd” moons, a well-lit Prometheus cruises the gap between Saturn’s A and F rings, clearing the channel while pulling up a small plume of material from the ropy F ring as it passes by. This is from raw image data shot by Cassini on February 10, 2009. I adjusted the image…
What The Hex?
As Saturn’s spring approaches, its north pole comes into view and reveals the curious six-sided geometric shape rotating in its uppermost latitudes. This image was taken by Cassini one month ago. (The image was black-and-white….I colored it myself using the hues found in Saturn’s atmosphere. Click to see the original photo.) The hexagonal feature…
Enigmatic Enceladus
The tortured terrain of Enceladus (en-SELL-a-dus) comes into light in this image taken by Cassini last October. This is actually a false-color mosaic of 28 images, assembled by the imaging operations center in Boulder, CO. The bluish tints are used to highlight features on the moon’s surface and show different densities of surface material. I rotated…
Above the Rings
One of many moons, little Mimas seems to hover above the vast sweeping rings of Saturn in this Cassini image. (It actually lies in the same plane as the rings.) The orbiter was nearly 2 million miles away from Mimas when this photo was taken last September. Saturn has 52 officially named moons. Mimas is…
Eddies and Whirls
Storms of varying sizes churn in Saturn’s northern hemisphere in this true-color image taken by the Cassini orbiter on November 29, 2008. The reason for the blue color is still not known, but it seems to fade with the winter season coming to an end. This photo was taken from a distance of 683,000 miles…
Lights in the Dark 