Saturn's most prominent feature, its dazzling ring system, takes center
stage in this stunning natural color mosaic which reveals the color and
diversity present in this wonder of the solar system. Gaps, gravitational
resonances and wave patterns are all present, and the delicate color
variations across the system are clearly visible.
This mosaic of six images covers a distance of approximately 62,000
kilometers along the ring plane, from a radius of 74,565 kilometers to
136,780 kilometers (46,333 to 84,991 miles) from the planet's center.
This view is from Cassini's vantage point beneath the ring plane. The
rings are tilted away from Cassini at an angle of about 4 degrees.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were used to
create this natural color mosaic. The images were acquired using the
Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Dec. 12, 2004, at a distance of
approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles). The image scale
is 10.5 kilometers (6.5 miles) per pixel.
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 mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate,
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.
