Credit: CICLOPS/JPL/ESA/NASA
When I first learned about the planets in school, I remember deciding that Saturn was my favorite, because it had rings. We now know that Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus also have rings, but Saturn's are the most spectacular. Humans have known about the rings of Saturn since the 17th century, but in the last few years, we've been able to see them from a new perspective. The image above was taken by the Cassini spacecraft from Saturn's orbit. It shows Saturn eclipsing the sun and seems to reveal that Saturn's night side receives some reflected light from its rings.
Credit: Cassini Imaging Team/SSI/JPL/ESA/NASA
In another perspective not visible from Earth, this Cassini image shows Saturn as a crescent. The light and shadow interplay here is impressive, with the rings casting shadows onto the planet surface, and the planet casting its own shadow onto the rings. Saturn, like Jupiter, is a gas giant, and subtle banding in its cloud tops can be seen here as well.
Credit: Cassini Imaging Team/SSI/JPL/ESA/NASA
This final "beauty shot" shows Saturn from below. The resolution of these images is spectacular, but Cassini had more in store for scientists - confirmation of a very strange formation at Saturn's north pole.
Credit: NASA/JPL/VIMS Team/University of Arizona
This Cassini infrared image confirms the hexagonal cloud system originally spotted by Voyager in the 1980s. It's not just a chance arrangement of clouds: this movie shows the rotation of the entire hexagon. Scientists are working on explanations for this phenomenon, but let's face it - this is beyond mysterious. It's more like, who could even conceive that something like this existed? How can clouds possibly form this shape?As the late Carl Sagan said, "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
