Ron
September 16th 04, 09:56 PM
MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
Carolina Martinez (818) 354-9382
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Heidi Finn (720) 974-5859
Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations
Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
Image Advisory:
2004-230
September 16, 2004
Strings of Shadowy Rings Drape Saturn
Saturn's ring shadows appear wrapped in a harmonious symphony with the
planet in this color view from the Cassini spacecraft.
Saturn and its rings would nearly fill the space between Earth and the
Moon. Yet, despite their great breadth, the rings are a few meters
thick and, in some places, very translucent. This image shows a
view through the C ring, which is closest to Saturn, and through the
Cassini division, the 4,800-kilometer-wide gap (2,980-miles) that arcs
across the top of the image and separates the optically thick B ring
from the A ring. The part of the atmosphere seen through the gap
appears darker and more bluish due to scattering at blue wavelengths
by the cloud-free upper atmosphere.
The different colors in Saturn's atmosphere are due to particles whose
composition is yet to be determined. This image was obtained
with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on July 30, 2004, at a
distance of 7.6 million kilometers (4.7 million miles) from Saturn.
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 images and information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/ and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini . Images
are also available at the Cassini imaging team home page,
http://ciclops.org/ .
- end -
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
Carolina Martinez (818) 354-9382
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Heidi Finn (720) 974-5859
Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations
Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
Image Advisory:
2004-230
September 16, 2004
Strings of Shadowy Rings Drape Saturn
Saturn's ring shadows appear wrapped in a harmonious symphony with the
planet in this color view from the Cassini spacecraft.
Saturn and its rings would nearly fill the space between Earth and the
Moon. Yet, despite their great breadth, the rings are a few meters
thick and, in some places, very translucent. This image shows a
view through the C ring, which is closest to Saturn, and through the
Cassini division, the 4,800-kilometer-wide gap (2,980-miles) that arcs
across the top of the image and separates the optically thick B ring
from the A ring. The part of the atmosphere seen through the gap
appears darker and more bluish due to scattering at blue wavelengths
by the cloud-free upper atmosphere.
The different colors in Saturn's atmosphere are due to particles whose
composition is yet to be determined. This image was obtained
with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on July 30, 2004, at a
distance of 7.6 million kilometers (4.7 million miles) from Saturn.
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 images and information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/ and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini . Images
are also available at the Cassini imaging team home page,
http://ciclops.org/ .
- end -