Saturn by Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera from April 4, 2014

This just showed up from NASA on their facebook page
A good look on Saturn, still strange why they first release it now.. its from April 4, and its in black and white

Saturn's many cloud patterns, swept along by high-speed winds, look as if they were painted on by some eager alien artist.

With no real surface features to slow them down, wind speeds on Saturn can top 1,100 mph (1,800 kph), more than four times the top speeds on Earth.

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 29 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 4, 2014 using a spectral filter which preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 752 nanometers.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers) from Saturn. Image scale is 68 miles (109 kilometers) per pixel.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

www.jpl.nasa.gov...

With no real surface features to slow them down, wind speeds on Saturn can top 1,100 mph (1,800 kph), more than four times the top speeds on Earth.

Wow, That would get the Washing dry. I feel lucky to live here on planet Earth. S&F

looks like a painting to me...

a reply to: Spacespider

Cool Pic.

The physics behind why the pole is shaped like a hexagon has got to be giving some people besides me fits.

a reply to: intrptr

Was just going to say the same thing. It is just weird that it's a hexagonal shape. Or any polygonal shape, for that matter. You'd think it'd be perfectly round.

a reply to: _BoneZ_

My best uderedumacated guess is a vibration of sorts. The way inducing a vibration can pile sand on a table surface into weird shapes?

Like that.

a reply to: intrptr

The hexagonal cloud pattern has been recreated in the laboratory. It appears to be caused by a significant change in wind speed between the edge of the hexagonal pattern and the pole.

At low relative speeds, there was nothing particularly unusual in the flow, just rotation of the water in the tank. But as the gradient between the two rotating sections was increased, wavelike instabilities started forming at the boundary between the two disks. Depending on conditions, the waves evolved chaotically or sometimes quite stably; there might be as few as two or as many as eight waves encircling the axis of rotation. But for a reasonably wide range of experimental parameters, they produced a wavenumber of 6: a hexagon.

Yes indeed, there must be some incredible forces at
work to create such a perfect hexagon. What's odd is esoterically
Saturn has been the Hex planet thousands of years before Cassini
had a view of its poles.
Thanks for sharing !

a reply to: CLPrime

Thanks for that link and explanation. I grabbed a pic from that link that shows things in a different spectrum.

Pic

The wave tank thing was also used to show how the spot on Jupiter formed. I think there is a moonetesimal in there at the center of the spot. We'll find out when the new probe arrives there next year. Tell them to point that cloud penetrating radar at the spot…

I don't think I could ever tire of seeing pictures like this. Our universe is such a beautiful place....

originally posted by: Spacespider
and its in black and white

There is a very good reason for that. More accurately, it's grayscale. In order to better reveal certain features we've configured the camera to see only one wavelength (or color). And because it is a color that humans cannot see, a representative color has to be assigned. It is typical to assign gray as it is perceived as a neutral color. Other colors could be considered counterfactual. Occasionally, green is used instead of gray because it is in the centre of the human visual color range and so provides for the highest contrast, dynamic range and sensitivity. This is why the displays on night vision equipment output a green image.

originally posted by: Spacespider
still strange why they first release it now.. its from April 4

These images are made available very soon after they were taken at saturn.jpl.nasa.gov...
NASA picks some old images every now and again for an article. The archive of raw images is vast, so it's good that NASA pick out a few "gems" from it.

The image is black & white because that's how the camera works. It takes b&w images through specific filters (in this case, in near-infrared). A true-colour image can be created by combining images taken through red, green, and blue filters.

For example, here's such an image I created from raw Cassini images:

Here's another one of mine, featured in the Amateur Images category: saturn.jpl.nasa.gov...

originally posted by: CraftBuilder

originally posted by: Spacespider
and its in black and white

There is a very good reason for that. More accurately, it's grayscale. In order to better reveal certain features we've configured the camera to see only one wavelength (or color). And because it is a color that humans cannot see, a representative color has to be assigned. It is typical to assign gray as it is perceived as a neutral color. Other colors could be considered counterfactual. Occasionally, green is used instead of gray because it is in the centre of the human visual color range and so provides for the highest contrast, dynamic range and sensitivity. This is why the displays on night vision equipment output a green image.

Well, I guess that makes sense, still I much have taken more then one picture.. Video footage would have been awesome

we've configured the camera

Have you worked on it ?

a reply to: intrptr

You are right about that. I still don't get how it remains a perfect hexagon. It just shows what patterns nature is capable of. Well, that is the most probable. Of course if you let your imagination run it could be the result of an alien planetary defense mechanism for large meteor strikes, lol!

originally posted by: Spacespider
still I much have taken more then one picture.

Cassini did take a whole bunch of pictures of Saturn at that time, using various filters such as red, green, blue, violet, medium and near infrared, methane absorption filters, and perhaps some others that I missed. You can search the raw images archive for images of Saturn taken on April 4th 2014 with wide-angle camera, to see all those images.

Here's a false-colour composite using images taken at medium to near infrared wavelengths:

With the medium-infrared assigned to red colour, and near-infrared assigned to blue colour, this image shows how Saturn's atmosphere at the north pole, and around some bands, absorbs the medium-infrared light but reflects the near-infrared.

~~~

Cassini cannot film videos. The best it can do it take a series of images, to be used in a time-lapse. There are already some of those on Youtube.

a reply to: Spacespider

Beautiful picture, the surface looks so soft in that image.

Saturn has always been my favorite planet, outside of ours of course.

a reply to: intrptr

The hexagon gives me fits too, it's so weird looking as it moves! Such a bizarre shape!

a reply to: wildespace

Hey now. Thansk for that rundown. In the photo you brought I was wondering if the white cirrus looking ring of clouds is a result or whets left of the "spot" that showed up on Saturn some time ago.

If anyone knows, thanks.

a reply to: CraftBuilder

This is why the displays on night vision equipment output a green image.

Ahh sooo… Never even thought to ponder that.

Look at that giant hexagon! My fav planet.

a reply to: Spacespider

THE CUUUUBE!!