Cassini Spacecraft Crosses Saturns Ring Plane
Explanation:
If this is Saturn, where are the rings?
When Saturn's "appendages"
disappeared
in 1612,
Galileo did not understand why.
Later that century, it became understood that
Saturn's unusual protrusions were rings and that when the
Earth crosses the ring plane,
the edge-on rings will appear to disappear.
This is because Saturn's rings are confined to a
plane many times thinner, in proportion, than a
razor blade.
In modern times, the
robot Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn now also crosses
Saturn's ring plane.
A series of plane crossing images from late February
was dug out of the vast
online Cassini raw image archive by interested Spanish amateur
Fernando Garcia Navarro.
Pictured above, digitally cropped and set in representative colors,
is the striking result.
Saturn's thin ring plane appears in blue, bands and clouds in
Saturn's upper atmosphere
appear in gold, and dark
shadows of the rings
curve across the top of the gas giant planet.
Moons appear as bumps in the rings.
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.
