This artist concept released by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Thursday Aug. 5, 2004 shows how Cassini (upper right) is able to detect radio signals from lightning on Saturn. Lightning strokes emit electromagnetic energy across a broad range of wavelengths, including the visual wavelengths we see and long radio wavelengths that cause static on an AM radio during a thunderstorm.
A few days before it entered orbit around Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft captured this natural color view of Saturn's rings, taken Wednesday, July 21, 2004, by Nasa. The rings are mostly water ice, which is white if it is pure. The different colors are therefore believed to reflect other materials, such as rock or carbon compounds, the space agency said.
This ultraviolet image released July 7, 2004, from the Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn shows, from the inside out, the "Cassini division" in faint red at left, followed by the A ring in its entirety.
This ultraviolet image released July 7, 2004, shows the outer C and inner B rings respectively from left to right. The general pattern is from "dirty" red particles to denser ice (turquoise). This hints at the origin and evolution of the rings, according to scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder, involved in the mission managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
This image of Saturn's moon Titan, acquired at a range of 213,700 miles on July 2, 2004, and released July 3, shows details never seen before. The image shows only surface brightness, no topographic shading, with the finest features less than 6 miles across. There are some linear features that could be impact craters, but the fact that many features are linear suggests that other geologic processes are shaping the surface.
A mosaic of images shows Titan's south polar region, acquired as Cassini passed by at a range of 210,600 miles on July 2, 2004, and released July 3. The images were acquired through special filters, designed to see through the thick haze and atmosphere.
This image (released July 1, 2004) is a narrow-angle camera image of Saturn's rings, taken by the Cassini spacecraft. It was cruising over the rings after the successful completion of the orbit insertion burn.
This image (released July 1, 2004) is a narrow-angle camera image of Saturn's rings, taken by the Cassini spacecraft. It was cruising over the rings after the successful completion of the orbit insertion burn.
Despite the views of the surface of Saturn's Titan moon provided by the Cassini spacecraft, the moon remains inscrutable to the human eye. Images taken with the narrow angle camera using red, green and blue color filters were combined to create this view.
This image released July 1, 2004, is a narrow-angle camera image of Saturn's rings taken by the Cassini spacecraft after it successfully completed the orbit insertion burn and was cruising over the rings.
Saturn's rings are seen in this narrow-angle camera image released by NASA on July 1, 2004. It was taken by the Cassini spacecraft.
Saturn's magnificent rings show some of their intricate structure.
A computer-rendered image of Cassini during the Saturn Orbit Insertion (SOI) maneuver.
Saturn's moon Phoebe is shown in this photo released by NASA Sunday, June 13, 2004, taken by the NASA spacecraft Cassini on June 11, 2004. Phoebe is showing probable evidence of an ice-rich body overlaid with a thin layer of dark material. The sharply defined crater at above center exhibits two or more layers of alternating bright and dark material.
Phoebe, moon of Saturn, as seen from NASA spacecraft Cassini, May 11, 2004.
Saturn as seen from NASA Cassini spacecraft, May 11, 2004.
This composite of two images, taken by the Cassini spacecraft May 7, 2004, and released Tuesday June 29, 2004, shows a wide view of Saturn. The white dots in the image are some of Saturn's moons. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.
This image of Saturn is a view from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on Monday, March 22, 2004. Camera exposures in four filters were combined to form the Hubble image and render colors similar to what the eye would see through a telescope focused on Saturn. The magnificent rings, at nearly their maximum tilt toward Earth, show subtle hues which indicate the trace chemical differences in their icy composition.
Artist rendering of a Cassini-Saturn flyby.
Color composite image of the planet Saturn taken by NASA Cassini spacecraft, Nov. 1, 2002.