Saturn,composite infrared and visual Cassini image. The planet's rings are seen edge on across centre (blue line). They are casting shadows (red,right) over Saturn's northern hemisphere. Green areas are where sunlight is scattering off clouds high in Saturn's atmosphere. Red areas are caused by the glow of thermal radiation from Saturn's interior. The increased brightness in the northern hemisphere is caused by thinner clouds and is thought to be a seasonal affect. The Cassini- Huygens spacecraft was launched in 1997 to investigate Saturn,its rings and its moons. Images taken in February 2006 at a distance of 1.6 million kilometres from Saturn | |
Licence : | Droits gérés |
Crédit: | Science Photo Library / NASA / JPL / University of Arizona |
Taille de l’image : | 3082 px × 2850 px |
Model Release : | Non requis |
Property Release : | Non requis |
Restrictions : | - |