PIA03152: Saturn's Atmospheric Changes

Target Name: Saturn Is a satellite of: Sol (our sun) Mission: Voyager Spacecraft: Voyager 2 Instrument: Imaging Science Subsystem - Narrow Angle Product Size: 849 samples x 900 lines Produced By: JPL Producer ID: P23880 Addition Date: 2001-03-28 Primary Data Set: Voyager EDRs Full-Res TIFF: PIA03152.tif (1.228 MB) Full-Res JPEG: PIA03152.jpg (40.49 kB)

Original Caption Released with Image: Saturn's rings are bright and its northern hemisphere defined by bright features as NASA's Voyager 2 approaches Saturn, which it will encounter on Aug. 25, 1981. Three images, taken through ultraviolet, violet and green filters on July 12, 1981, were combined to make this photograph. Several changes are apparent in Saturn's atmosphere since Voyager 1's November 1980 encounter, and the planet's rings have brightened considerably due to the higher sun angle. Voyager 2 was 43 million kilometers (27 million miles) from Saturn when it took this photograph. The Voyager project is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Image Credit: NASA/JPL