X

Images: Hot spot on Saturn

A new set of infrared images taken by the Keck I telescope in Hawaii shows a warm polar hot spot at Saturn's south pole.

4 min read

Hot spot on Saturn

This mosaic false-color image of thermal heat emission from Saturn and its rings was taken with the Keck I telescope.

Credit: W. M. Keck Observatory/NASA/JPL-G. Orton

Saturn hot spot

Hot spot on Saturn

These false-color images show tropospheric temperatures (left) and stratospheric temperatures (right).

Credit: W. M. Keck Observatory/NASA/JPL-G. Orton

Saturn hot spot

Probe reaches Saturn moon

Photos taken by the European Space Agency's Huygens probe as it descended to the surface of Titan show a river channel and ridge area.

Credit: ESA

Landing on Titan

Probe reaches Saturn moon

This photo of Titan's surface reveals features such as evidence of flow around "islands," deposits of water ice and channels that could have been created by methane springs.

Credit: ESA

Landing on Titan

Probe reaches Saturn moon

This picture is a composite of 30 images from ESA's Huygens probe as it was decending toward the surface of Titan. The images were taken from an altitude between 8 kilometers and 13 kilometers.

Credit: ESA/NASA/University of Arizona

Titan

Probe reaches Saturn moon

This is a colorized view of the surface of Titan taken by the European Space Agency's Huygens probe. The two rock-like objects just below the middle of the image are about 6 inches (left) and about 1.5 inches (center) across respectively, at a distance of about about 33 inches from Huygens.

Credit: ESA/NASA/University of Arizona

Titan's surface

Full moons over Saturn

This Cassini image shows predominantly the impact-scarred leading hemisphere of Saturn's icy moon Rhea.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Rhea

Probe reaches Saturn moon

This map of a portion of the surface of Saturn's moon Titan shows predictions for the areas that will be covered by selected combinations of images anticipated from the camera on the Huygens probe.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Huygens probe path

Probe reaches Saturn moon

A colorized version of Titan, a moon which may have experienced its first visitor.

Credit: ESA

Titan

Full moons over Saturn

New images hint that the streaks visible on the surface of Dione are not ice, as previously believed, but cliffs.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Full moons over Saturn

Scientists captured images of the polar clouds of Titan in October. The appearance recently of other clouds (right), though, has been a surprise.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Clouds on Titan

Full moons over Saturn

Prominent in the center of this image of Titan, taken Dec. 10 on Cassini's return trip, is Xanadu, a broad bright area. There is also a bright 345-mile semi-circle to the lower right on Xanadu, as well as a 205 mile multi-ringed feature to the upper right.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Return to Titan

Full moons over Saturn

Residents of Dione would see nothing but Saturn for half the day.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Full moons over Saturn

Shown here are two images of the expected landing site of Cassini's Huygens probe.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Landing on Titan

Full moons over Saturn

Look closely and you'll see a trail of particles from Saturn's F ring to Prometheus, a moon that's 63-miles wide. Or, is the stream from Prometheus to the F ring?

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Moon with a tether