Saturn from Below

well, the cassini-huygens mission has certainly provided us with magnificent views of saturn since its launch. here is an impressive image of the planet from below (incidentally, this was today's APOD). and let's not forget the recent news of the hexagonal feature on the planet's north pole, which has scientists wondering... more to come, i'm sure. (image credit: APOD)

Beautiful Saturn

the above image was return by nasa's cassini spacecraft, which has been climbing to higher and higher inclinations over the past months in order to see the planet from above. i'm going to quote the below from the cassini website, since it was written so nice and poetically:

"surely one of the most gorgeous sights the solar system has to offer, saturn sits enveloped by the full splendor of its stately rings.

taking in the rings in their entirety was the focus of this particular imaging sequence. therefore, the camera exposure times were just right to capture the dark-side of its rings, but longer than that required to properly expose the globe of sunlit saturn. consequently, the sunlit half of the planet is overexposed.

between the blinding light of day and the dark of night, there is a strip of twilight on the globe where colorful details in the atmosphere can be seen. bright clouds dot the bluish-grey northern polar region here. in the south, the planet's night side glows golden in reflected light from the rings' sunlit face."

more images here, and a movie here. (image credit: nasa)