Friday, November 1, 2013

APOD 2.1

The image below is a top view of Saturn. The significance of the images lies in the capture of Saturn's night side- it would be impossible for this image to be captured by an Earth-based observer because Earth is much closer to than Sun than it is to Saturn. This means that Earth observers can only see the day side of Saturn and its rings. Cassini was able to capture yet another image of Saturn. Cassini took thirty-six separate image of the same view each with varying filters (red, green, and blue). This one, however, stands out above the rest. For the first time, astronomers have been able to see the gap between Saturn and its rings. So far, the separation between Saturn and its rings has not been visible, but thanks to this mosaic put together by Gordan Ugarkovic we can see not only that, but a lot more. This image also reveals Saturn's polar hexagon, a rotating cloud pattern at Saturn's North Pole with six sides of equal length.

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