I have two really… the more detailed one is a bit photographic and i’m wondering if that is “better”? I mean, we already have photos so what’s the point? I am trying to make a nicely designed poster so should I go with the simpler (and therefore) more graphic version???
Less details:
More details:
At this size you really barely see the details. Click on for larger version of each.
By the way, the rings look really different because they are supposed to look back lit in this illustration.
Another gorgeous view of the ringed wonder joins the Saturnati. Dione Hangs above.
I’m beginning to feel like this isn’t my blog anymore… I keep finding images processed by Gordan Ugarkovic to be among the very best out there. This is definitely the best color image I have seen of details in Saturn’s cloud tops. If you haven’t perused his flickr account, I’d avise you to do so. Go there to see the hires of this image and many others. It is a one-stop-shop for anyone longing to see more color from the Cassini mission http://www.flickr.com/photos/ugordan/
Not much to say about this one but, wow. This is better than the famous hi-res Saturn image from early in the Cassini mission. The composite image was made by Ian Regan who is a freelance imager.
Gordan Ugarkovic has a great collection of reworked Cassini images on Flickr. I contacted Gordan about showing some of his images here on wanderingspace and he was ever so gracious. As many people Gordan is “somewhat underwhelmed by the frequency the Cassini Imaging Team releases color composites”, so it is up to excellent freelancers like him to compile this information from the data files which are made public by NASA. Problem is that these images rarely make it to the mass media and we are stuck with the dozen or so color images the NASA imaging teams decide to produce in a year.
WALLPAPER NOTE: The left 1/3 of the “Three Moons” image was extended in Photoshop using data at the edges of the original image which was cropped to a square format. This “fake” imagery was only applied to that area of the rings and the rest of the image including the moons is actual.
Here are some other images from Gordan which are some of my favorites, but don’t trust my editing… go to the gallery and have a look yourself. For the sake of posterity I have added a permanent link to his gallery on the right side of this blog where you may note that there are already a few others linked. There were two additional ones but the sites have been taken down since I linked to them?! Hopefully the three left will stick around for a while and I will in time add more to the collection.
Tethys and Saturn’s Hazy Limb
Mimas and Prometheus on Rings
Io on Jupiters Edge
Currently the Cassini spacecraft is orbiting Saturn during Saturnian Winter unlike when Voyager sped by in the 80’s when it saw an almost globally peach colored Saturn. During this winter, the rings tend to keep the region in shadows and the theory goes that this lowers the temperatures and break up the peach colored clouds and “clear” the skies to reveal this blue. If this is the case, we are seeing deeper into the atmosphere here than we do in the areas blanketed by the more peach colored top clouds.
The image shows the northern pole of Saturn and those bands are the shadows of the rings on the cloud tops. You can see some smaller cloud formations in between the shadow gaps which gives a very alien Saturn some Earth-like familiarity.
One of my favorite wallpaper images from the Cassini mission. This image almost looks like one of the fantastic Chesley Bonestell images from the 80’s only its not a painting. What you see are Saturn’s rings along the bottom and tiny Mimas floating across Saturnian cloudtops which are being shadowed by the rings. It is thought that these deep shadows, in addition to Saturn currently being in winter, somehow cause less clouds to form in Saturn’s northern hemisphere and create the blueish appearance seen here. When the Voyager’s passed by Saturn in the 80’s the entire globe appeared to be peach colored and lacked any of the blues you see today.
IMAGE NOTE: The left 1/5 of the image (the rings) is a digital extension of the image data found near the edge of the original image. This was done simply to fill out the proportion as the original was cropped to about 4/5 the the width.
This image of Saturn is making the covers of many “Year in Science” issues out there right now. It may not have much science in it, but it sure is just about the most visually engaging image of the year. Hard to think that this IS NOT A FALSE COLOR image. Although it would be my guess its just a bit over-exposed… but then again so are most your holiday pictures.
A tiny moon named Janus with a back drop of Saturn’s cloud-tops. There is not much to say about this tiny place other than the odd nature of its shared orbit with another tiny moon named Epimetheus. About once every four years they approach one another and swap orbits without coming any closer than 10,000km.
IMAGE NOTE: The image original was black and white and color was added based upon numerous images of Saturn’s cloud-tops. As with many tiny moons, the black and white nature of Janus was just maintained as it is not expected to have looked any different in color.
A new image recently returned from Cassini when passing into the dark side of the ringed giant. Seen from above the rings are being lit straight on with light reflecting off of them and captured by Cassini.
Here the rings of Saturn are lit from behind and take on quite a different appearance as the light is now filtered through the rings instead of reflected.
IMAGE NOTE: A considerable amount of the ring details have been fabricated in this image. Unfortunately, the original cropped about 1/3 of the right side of the image. The rings were completed by referencing pixels at the edge of the original and continuing the arc around. Where no information was available to fill the frame, other images of Saturn were referenced to guess at their appearance. Again… the left 2/3 of the image is untouched.
Usually the favorite of most due to its fabulous ring system which easily makes Saturn the most picturesque bodies in the solar system. It also has an extensive system of moons which makes Saturn, like Jupiter, almost a mini system within our Solar System. One of its moons, Titan, is more of a planet than some planets are in that it has a thick atmosphere, is large in size, has weather and recent radar images suggest an extensive system of methane/ethane rivers and lakes.