Yesterday NASA published this beautiful photo taken by the Cassini-Huygens probe. The blue background is Saturn’s northern hemisphere; the pebble you can barely see standing out against it is its moon Mimas. The tan streaks in the foreground are the planet’s rings, which are casting shadows on the planet below. See the NASA page for a more detailed caption and larger photo.The photo is a composite of multiple shots taken in black and white with different color filters. Computers on Earth recombine them to make the color image, which is an estimate of how things would appear to a human eye and brain. Watch for news of this mission on Christmas Day, when the Huygens probe will drop into Titan’s thick and opaque atmosphere.[Hat tip: The Panda's Thumb]

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 30th, 2004 at 6:38 pm by Mystery Man and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.