PIA01966: Saturn and its ring system

Target Name: Saturn Is a satellite of: Sol (our sun) Mission: Voyager Spacecraft: Voyager 2 Instrument: Imaging Science Subsystem - Narrow Angle Product Size: 850 samples x 820 lines Produced By: JPL Producer ID: P23907 Addition Date: 1999-05-06 Primary Data Set: Voyager EDRs Full-Res TIFF: PIA01966.tif (1.48 MB) Full-Res JPEG: PIA01966.jpg (33.66 kB)

Original Caption Released with Image: Voyager 2 returned this view of Saturn and its ring system Aug. 11, when the spacecraft was 13.9 million kilometers (8.6 million miles) away and approaching the large, gaseous planet at about l million km. (620,000 mi.) a day. The ring system’s shadow is clearly cast in the equatorial region. Storm clouds and small-scale spots in the mid-latitudes are apparent. The so-called “ribbonlike” feature in the white cloud band marks a high-speed jet at about 47 north; there, the westerly wind speeds are about 150 meters-per-second (330 mph). The banding on this large, gaseous planet extends toward both poles. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Image Credit: NASA/JPL