South Pole on Saturn
Date: 12 July 2004
Satellite: Cassini
Depicts: Saturn
Copyright: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Details observed in Saturn's south polar region demonstrate that this area is far from featureless. Lighter coloured clouds dot the entire region, which is dominated by a central, sharply-defined circular feature. Movie sequences in which these features are captured and followed will allow wind speeds in the polar region to be measured.
This image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft's narrow angle camera on 20 May 2004, from a distance of 22 million kilometres from Saturn through a filter centred at 750 nanometres. The image scale is 131 kilometres per pixel. Contrast in the image was enhanced and magnified to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.
