Natural Saturn On The Cassini Cruise
Explanation:
What could you see approaching Saturn aboard an
interplanetary cruise ship?
Your view would likely resemble
this
subtly shaded image of the gorgeous ringed gas giant.
Processed by the
Hubble
Heritage project, the picture intentionally
avoids overemphasizing color contrasts and presents a
natural looking Saturn
with cloud bands,
storms, nearly
edge-on rings, and the small round shadow
of the moon Enceladus near the center of the planet's disk.
Of course, seats were not available on the only ship currently
en route, the
Cassini
spacecraft.
Cassini flew
by
Jupiter at the turn of the millennium and is
scheduled
to arrive at Saturn in the year 2004.
After an extended cruise to a world 1,400 million kilometers
from the Sun, Cassini will tour the
Saturnian
system, conducting a remote, robotic exploration
with software and instruments
designed by
denizens of planet Earth.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
