This image shows dramatic details in the swirling, turbulent bands of
clouds in Saturn's atmosphere. Particularly noteworthy is the disturbed
equatorial region. The image was taken with the Cassini narrow angle
camera on May 10, 2004, in the spectral region where methane strongly
absorbs light. It was taken at a distance of 27.2 million kilometers
(16.9 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 162 kilometers (101
miles) per pixel. Contrast in the image was enhanced to aid visibility.
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 Office of Space
Science, 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 more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit,
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page,
http://ciclops.org.