This Cassini image shows beautifully the complex eddies and wave patterns in Saturn's cloud bands.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Sept. 7, 2004, at a distance of 8.9 million kilometers (5.5 million miles) from Saturn, through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 727 nanometers. The image scale is 53 kilometers (33 miles) per pixel. The image was magnified by a factor of two and slightly contrast-enhanced to improve visibility of features in the atmosphere.
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 Cassini-Huygens 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 team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org .
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
