Saturn's Rings at Maximum Tilt, 2004
As NASA's Cassini spacecraft hurtles toward a July 1, 2004 rendezvous with Saturn, the Hubble Space Telescope continues snapping breathtaking pictures of the solar system's most photogenic planet. This latest view, taken on March 22, 2004, is so sharp that many individual ringlets can be seen in Saturn's ring plane. Though Hubble is nearly a billion miles farther from Saturn than the Cassini probe, Hubble's exquisite optics, coupled with the high resolution of its Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), allow it to take pictures of Saturn which are nearly as sharp as Cassini's wide-angle views of the full planet as it begins its approach. Hubble camera exposures in four filters (blue, blue-green, green, and red) were combined into this image, to render colors similar to what the eye would see through a telescope focused on Saturn. Saturn displays its familiar banded structure, and haze and clouds of various altitudes. Even the magnificent rings, at nearly their maximum tilt toward Earth, show subtle hues, which trace chemical differences in their icy composition.
Size: 3900px × 2765px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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