[marden]

The great planet Saturn reveals mysteries more profound, and stories more grand, than those occasioned by its ancient mythological namesake.

The giant planet is a moody world whose disposition appears to change with the view. Its atmosphere rages with thunderous and hurricane-like storms. Its majestic rings spin a tale of ancient collisions and cataclysm. And its moons may hold secrets to the origins of life.

This view looks toward the lit side of the rings from about 28 degrees below the ring plane.

The image was taken using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 890 nanometers. The view was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Jan. 30, 2007, at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 60 kilometers (38 miles) per pixel.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit Cassini-Huygens Home. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org .
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

NASA - Cassini-Huygens: Close Encounter with Saturn

[marden]

NASA - Archive

Here are some thumbnails.

[rickey939]

What about the 2007 Saturn Outlook?

[marden]

Originally Posted by rickey939 

What about the 2007 Saturn Outlook?

Along those same lines what about the weather outlook?

[Lateralus]

Originally Posted by rickey939 

What about the 2007 Saturn Outlook?

I'm diggin' the Aura quite a bit...

[Oneota]

Speaking of GM vehicles, I'm kind of excited by the 2008 Chevy Malibu. Get the top-end engine in that puppy, and it looks like it'll be a pretty slick car. Not completely sure I like the new nose, but I'll reserve judgement until I see it in person.


But back on-topic, while those are pretty fantastic pictures of Saturn, have they discovered something new lately, or are they just posting the latest pics for their own sake?

[Lateralus]

Yeah, the new Malibu is incredible looking. Actually worthy of the name, unlike every other re-incarnated Malibu model.

What strikes me particularly is the interior; it's gorgeous. I had pretty much zero faith in GM's ability to design an interior that wasn't appalling. But over the past year or two they've definitely started paying attention.

[rickey939]

I've seen those taillights on the Malibu somewhere else...Diamante maybe? Volvo?

[Lateralus]

They look like reversed Volvo sedan tailights.

[mac128k-1984]

Yeah I've seen those pix pretty awesome shots. I wonder what happened to the probe that was going to descend into saturn. I haven't heard anything since it detached from cassini.