Photos of the Day: Photos of the day 04/30
In Pictures: The kings and queens of modern monarchies
Photos of the Day: Photos of the Day 04/29
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In Pictures: Where Our Clothes Come From
This photograph of Saturn, taken on its equinox, was taken up close by the robotic spacecraft Cassini. Photographs taken during the planet's equinox, the point in orbit in which the sun's disk is exactly overhead at the planet's equator, show the shadow of the rings as a thin band dividing the planet in two. NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
New insights into the nature of Saturn's rings are revealed in this panoramic mosaic of 15 images taken during the planet's August 2009 equinox. The illumination geometry that accompanies equinox lowers the sun's angle to the ring plane, significantly darkens the rings, and causes out-of-plane structures to cast long shadows across the rings. Cassini's cameras have spotted not only the predictable shadows of some of Saturn's moons, but also the shadows of newly revealed vertical structures in the rings themselves. NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
This file photo from the Cassini spacecraft shows icy geysers spewing from the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus. Huge geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus may be fed by a salty sea below its surface, boosting the odds of extraterrestrial life in our own solar system, according to a study released in June 2009. Researchers in Europe detected salt particles in the volcanic vapour-and-ice jets that shoot hundreds of miles into space, the strongest evidence to date of a liquid ocean under Enceladus's icy crust. NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute/AFP/Newscom/File
Alternating light and dark bands, extending a great distance across Saturn's D and C rings, are shown here in these Cassini images taken one month before the planet's August 2009 equinox. The periodic brightness variations in the rings are almost certainly caused by the changing slopes in the rippled ring plane, much like the corrugations of a tin roof. Although previous Cassini observations had revealed corrugations in the D ring extending over 500 miles, this image shows these features extending for 6,200 miles into the C ring. NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Whorls, streamers and eddies play in the banded atmosphere of a gas giant in this file photo of Saturn. Strong image enhancement renders clouds a grainy texture not unlike sandstone. However, the loss in delicate smoothness is compensated for by an increase in discernible detail. NASA-JPL-Space Science Institute/CNP/Newscom/File
Near the middle of the image, shadows are cast by vertically extended clumps in the kinky, discontinuous ringlets of the Encke Gap in the A ring. These clumps are casting shadows approximately 170 miles long, implying a clump height about 2,000 feet above the ring plane. NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
This photo from the Cassini spacecraft looks down on the north pole of Saturn's moon Dione and the fine fractures that cross its trailing hemisphere. NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Saturn and its rings are seen in this undated false color photograph taken by the Cassini spacecraft. This view makes Saturn's rings faintly visible in the lower left, while the false color enhancement brings out additional detail in the planet's clouds that is not visible in the natural color view. NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute/Newscom/File
Photos of the Day: Photos of the day 04/30
In Pictures: The kings and queens of modern monarchies
Photos of the Day: Photos of the Day 04/29
Photos of the Day: Photos of the Day 04/28
Photos of the Day: Photos of the day 04/27
Photos of the Day: Photos of the day 04/26
Photos of the Day: Photos of the Day 04/25
In Pictures: Where Our Clothes Come From
A monster hurricane at Saturn's north pole, spotted by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, has an eye 1,250 miles wide and inner eye wall winds of 330 miles an hour. Its energy source is a mystery.
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured images of a monster hurricane at Saturn's north pole – a storm so vast and powerful it makes tropical cyclones on Earth look tame by comparison.
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