Friday, December 27, 2013

Saturn's North Polar Hexagon and Hurricane in Natural Color


The globe of Saturn, seen here in natural color, is reminiscent of a holiday ornament in this wide-angle view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The characteristic hexagonal shape of Saturn's northern jet stream, somewhat yellow here, is visible. At the pole lies a Saturnian version of a high-speed hurricane, eye and all.

To learn more about Saturn's north polar region see PIA14944 and PIA14945.

This view is centered on terrain at 75 degrees north latitude, 120 degrees west longitude. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural-color view. The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 22, 2013.

This view was acquired at a distance of approximately 611,000 miles (984,000 kilometers) from Saturn. Image scale is 51 miles (82 kilometers) per pixel.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Note: For more information, see Cassini Sees Saturn and Moons in Holiday Dress.

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