MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Carolina Martinez 818-354-9382
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Image Advisory: 2006-125 Oct. 11, 2006

Cassini Image Shows Saturn Draped in a String of Pearls

Saturn appears dressed to the nines, "wearing" a strand
of "pearls" in a stunning infrared image from the
Cassini spacecraft that showcases a meteorological
phenomenon.

The image, acquired by Cassini's visual and infrared
mapping spectrometer, shows Saturn lit by its own internal,
thermal glow. Clearly visible is a 60,000-kilometer-long
(37,000 miles) string of bright "pearls," which are
actually clearings in Saturn's deep cloud system.

The image is available at: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini ,
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov , and
http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu .

The findings are being presented today at the Division
for Planetary Sciences Meeting of the American
Astronomical Society held in Pasadena, Calif.

More than two dozen cloud clearings appear at Saturn's
north latitude. Each clearing follows another at a regular
spacing of about 3.5 degrees in longitude. This is the
first time such a regular and extensive train of cloud
clearings has been observed, indicating that they may be
a result of a large planetary cloud formation or wave
that might encircle the whole planet.

Scientists plan to continue observing this phenomenon
over the next few years to try to learn more about
Saturn's deep circulation systems and meteorology.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of
NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space
Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of
the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena,
manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science
Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter
was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The visual
and infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the
University of Arizona.

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