Cassini Image: Bands of Clouds and Lace

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgibin/gs...jpg&type=image

Cassini-Huygens
Mission to Saturn & Titan

Bands of Clouds and Lace
May 13, 2004

Full-Res: PIA05391
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA05391

As Cassini nears its rendezvous with Saturn, new detail in
the banded clouds of the planet's atmosphere are becoming visible.

Cassini began the journey to the ringed world of Saturn nearly
seven years ago and is now less than two months away from orbit
insertion on June 30. Cassini?s narrow-angle camera took this
image on April 16, 2004, when the spacecraft was 38.5 million
kilometers (23.9 million miles) from Saturn.

Dark regions are generally areas free of high clouds, and bright
areas are places with high, thick clouds which shield the view
of the darker areas below. A dark spot is visible at the south
pole, which is remarkable to scientists because it is so small
and centered. The spot could be affected by Saturn's magnetic
field, which is nearly aligned with the planet's rotation axis,
unlike the magnetic fields of Jupiter and Earth. From south to
north, other notable features are the two white spots just above
the dark spot toward the right, and the large dark oblong-shaped
feature that extends across the middle. The darker band beneath
the oblong-shaped feature has begun to show a lacy pattern of
lighter-colored, high altitude clouds, indicative of turbulent
atmospheric conditions.

The cloud bands move at different speeds, and their
irregularities may be due to either the different motions between
them or to disturbances below the visible cloud layer. Such
disturbances might be powered by the planet's internal heat;
Saturn radiates more energy than it receives from the Sun.

The moon Mimas (396 kilometers, 245 miles across) is visible to
the left of the south pole. Saturn currently has 31 known moons.
Since launch, 13 new moons have been discovered by ground-based
telescopes. Cassini will get a closer look and may discover new
moons, perhaps embedded within the planet?s magnificent rings.

This image was taken using a filter sensitive to light near 727
nanometers, one of the near-infrared absorption bands of methane
gas, which is one of the ingredients in Saturn's atmosphere. The
image scale is approximately 231 kilometers (144 miles) per pixel.
Contrast has been enhanced to aid 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 Office of Space Science, 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

In article ,
says...
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA05391
[...]
Cassini began the journey to the ringed world of Saturn nearly
seven years ago and is now less than two months away from orbit
insertion on June 30.

Just look at it, from two months away! This one has already been worth
the wait! Lean in for the better ride...

Hats off to all concerned!