Rings of Saturn – on the new photos NASA – National Geographic Russia

The robot spacecraft “Cassini-Huygens mission» (Cassini-Huygens) produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European and Italian space agencies. Its task is to study Saturn, its rings and satellites. The complex consists of the orbital station “Cassini” and reentry vehicle with automatic station “Huygens”, designed for landing on Titan. “Cassini-Huygens” was launched on 15 October 1997. July 1, 2004, he entered the orbit of Saturn.

In the fall of 2010, “Cassini” began a new phase of its mission, dubbed “Solstice» (Solstice). The life of the apparatus extended to 2017, and the mission itself is illuminated on the site NASA.

The new image was taken May 25, 2015 using a spectral filter at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers. The scale is 89 kilometers per pixel. Infrared images help determine the location of clouds in the planet’s atmosphere. On made “Cassini” picture dark colors mean low position of clouds and the light – higher. This helps in the study of migration on the Saturn gas streams.