NASA’s Cassini team has released stunning new images of Saturn and its three moons – Titan, Enceladus and Rhea.
Saturn. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.
“During this, our tenth holiday season at Saturn, we hope that these images from Cassini remind everyone the world over of the significance of our discoveries in exploring such a remote and beautiful planetary system,” said team leader Dr Carolyn Porco of the Space Science Institute in Boulder.
The first image, taken with Cassini’s wide-angle camera on July 22, 2013, shows the globe of Saturn in natural color.
The characteristic hexagonal shape of the planet’s northern jet stream, somewhat yellow here, is visible. At the pole lies a Saturnian version of a high-speed hurricane, eye and all.
The image is centered on terrain at 75 degrees north latitude, 120 degrees west longitude. It was acquired at a distance of 984,000 km from the planet.
The second image, taken with Cassini’s narrow-angle camera on June 16, 2011, shows the Saturn’s largest and second largest moons, Titan and Rhea.
Titan and Rhea. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.
The north polar hood can be seen on Titan appearing as a detached layer at the top of the moon on the top right.
This image looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Rhea. North on Rhea is up and rotated 35 degrees to the right.
The image was acquired at a distance of about 1.8 million km from Rhea and 2.5 million km from Titan.
The third image, taken with Cassini’s narrow-angle camera on March 10, 2012, shows Enceladus, the sixth-largest of the moons of Saturn.
Enceladus. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.
Enceladus is a white, glittering snowball of a moon, now famous for the nearly 100 geysers that are spread across its south polar region and spout tiny icy particles into space. Most of these particles fall back to the surface as snow. Some small fraction escapes the gravity of Enceladus and makes its way into orbit around Saturn, forming the planet’s extensive and diffuse E ring.
Because scientists believe these geysers are directly connected to a subsurface, salty, organic-rich, liquid-water reservoir, Enceladus is home to one of the most accessible extraterrestrial habitable zones in the Solar System.
This image looks toward the leading side of Enceladus. North on Enceladus is up and rotated 6 degrees to the left. The image was acquired at a distance of about 170,000 km from Enceladus.
