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The rings of Saturn
Saturns Rings  An infra-red picture of Satern and its Rings. Saturns Rings  An ultraviolet picture of Satern and its Rings. Saturns Rings  A visible light picture of Satern and its Rings.
The Slant on Saturn's Rings  This is a series of images of Saturn, as seen at many different wavelengths, when the planet's rings were at a maximum tilt of 27 degrees toward Earth. Saturn experiences seasonal tilts away from and toward the Sun, much the same way Earth does. Approximately every 30 years, Earth observers can catch their best glimpse of Saturn's South Pole and the southern side of the planet's rings. Saturn and its Rings  An accurate view of Saturn, which highlights the planet's pastel colors. Bands of subtle color - yellows, browns, grays - distinguish differences in the clouds over Saturn, the second largest planet in the solar system. Saturn  The delicate color variations in the clouds are due to smog in the upper atmosphere, produced when ultraviolet radiation from the Sun shines on methane gas. Deeper in the atmosphere, the visible clouds and gases merge gradually into hotter and denser gases, with no solid surface for visiting spacecraft to land on.
An Infrared View Of Saturn  In honor of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's eighth anniversary, we have gift wrapped Saturn in vivid colors. Actually, this image is courtesy of the new Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS), which has taken its first peek at Saturn. The false-color image - taken Jan. 4, 1998 - shows the planet's reflected infrared light. This view provides detailed information on the clouds and hazes in Saturn's atmosphere. Edge-On View of Saturn's Rings  This is a Hubble Space Telescope snapshot of Saturn with its rings barely visible. Normally, astronomers see Saturn with its rings tilted. Earth was almost in the plane of Saturn's rings, thus the rings appear edge-on. Wide View of Saturn's F Ring  This is one of the first images taken of Saturn's F ring by the Cassini spacecraft after it successfully entered Saturn's orbit. It was taken by the spacecraft's wide angle camera and shows the sunlit side of the rings.
Saturn on October 1998  Saturn is about 75, 000 miles (120, 000 km) across, and is flattened at the poles because of its very rapid rotation. A day is only 10 hours long on Saturn. Strong winds account for the horizontal bands in the atmosphere of this giant gas planet.<BR><BR>The delicate color variations in the clouds are due to smog in the upper atmosphere, produced when ultraviolet radiation from the Sun shines on methane gas. Deeper in the atmosphere, the visible clouds and gases merge gradually into hotter and denser gases, with no solid surface for visiting spacecraft to land on. Saturn as Seen by Hubble   Saturn's A Ring From the Inside Out  The best view of Saturn's rings in the ultraviolet indicates there is more ice toward the outer part of the rings, than in the inner part, hinting at the origins of the rings and their evolution.<BR><BR>Images taken during the Cassini spacecraft's orbital insertion on June 30 show compositional variation in the A, B and C rings. From the inside out, the "Cassini Division" in faint red at left is followed by the A ring in its entirety. The Cassini Division at left contains thinner, dirtier rings than the turquoise A ring, indicating a more icy composition. The red band roughly three-fourths of the way outward in the A ring is known as the Encke gap.<BR><BR>The ring system begins from the inside out with the D, C, B and A rings followed by the F, G and E rings. The red in the image indicates sparser ringlets likely made of "dirty," and possibly smaller, particles than in the icier turquoise ringlets.
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