Cassini, the joint mission between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Italian space agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), continues to provide stunning views of Saturn.
Saturn’s north pole. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
What is the hexagon shape at the giant planet’s pole? Scientists believe that it’s the eye of a storm. The bands around the planet are air currents that travels at different speeds and clouds at different heights. Swirls form where the differing bands meet.
When Cassini took this picture with its wide-angle camera, the spacecraft was around 890,000 miles from the planet. How far away is that? Really far – for reference, the diameter of Earth at the equator is less than 8,000 miles!
Far outlasting its original mission, Cassini was launched in 1997 and will perform its final tasks in September 2017. The mission will collect data during its ‘Grand Finale’ when it will perform 22 unique orbits between the planet and the edge of its innermost rings.
Learn more about Cassini at NASA.gov.