NASA releases new image of Saturn

Zee Media Bureau\Philaso G Kaping Washington: NASA has released an image of Saturn taken just as its hexagonal shaped jet stream was encircling the planet`s north pole and its rings were encircling the planet. This image was taken by a wide-angle camera on board the Cassini spacecraft on 23 November, 2013. The camera is fitted with a spectral filter that preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 752 nanometers. “The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.6 million miles (2.5 million kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 97 degrees. Image scale is 93 miles (150 kilometers) per pixel,” explained NASA. Launched in 1997 by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, the Cassini–Huygens spacecraft is on a mission to study the ringed planet and its natural satellites. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute