Old news as new news. Saturn 5 years ago.

[OmCheeto]

Don't remember seeing this.

Does NASA do September fools jokes?

I cannot imagine anything so CGI being for real.

 

[Borek]

They say it is an exaggerated color image, which means photoshopped to the death (using software with the price tag that makes Photoshop look free).

 

[Drakkith]

What's the problem? Just looks like extreme enhancement of a real image. I do this all the time with my astrophotography, just a lot less enhancement.

 

[russ_watters]

...and it has been on the cover of a bunch of magazines.

 

[Cyclo]

Wonderful image. I have seen it featured on a number of televised documentaries.

I love how it includes Earth as a brilliant white dot too

 

[CosmicEye]

Well it's a pretty image. Solar photographers do this with the sun. I've never of complaining from better detail..

 

[OmCheeto]

What's the problem? Just looks like extreme enhancement of a real image. I do this all the time with my astrophotography, just a lot less enhancement.

Is Saturn's surface that reflective? I thought it was a gas bag? Why don't the lines line up?

If it's a composite, then I have no problem. Just don't tell me this is an enhanced photograph.

disclaimer: I have never been to the far side of Saturn, nor do I know anything.

 

[Borek]

Composite & enhanced.

 

[russ_watters]

Why don't the lines line up?
[/SIZE]

The rings cast a shadow on the surface of the planet that seems to add or change them, since they are mostly transparent. It happens sometimes.

 

[Astronuc]

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110904.html

Explanation: In the shadow of Saturn, unexpected wonders appear. The robotic Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn drifted in giant planet's shadow for about 12 hours in 2006 and looked back toward the eclipsed Sun. Cassini saw a view unlike any other. First, the night side of Saturn is seen to be partly lit by light reflected from its own majestic ring system. Next, the rings themselves appear dark when silhouetted against Saturn, but quite bright when viewed away from Saturn, slightly scattering sunlight, in this exaggerated color image. Saturn's rings light up so much that new rings were discovered, although they are hard to see in the image. Seen in spectacular detail, however, is Saturn's E ring, the ring created by the newly discovered ice-fountains of the moon Enceladus and the outermost ring visible above. Far in the distance, at the left, just above the bright main rings, is the almost ignorable pale blue dot of Earth.

Find more at:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/

 

[KrisOhn]

You can see a much more believable version from the Cassini wikipedia article.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Saturn_eclipse.jpg

It's just Saturn eclipsing the sun.

 

[OmCheeto]

A ha! After looking at about 1000 images of Saturn, I've figured out what I was misinterpreting. The rings reflect light back onto Saturn's surface primarily only towards one hemisphere. Here's another view:

There were actually three bugs I had to resolve:
1. I didn't notice in the original image that the southern hemisphere was brighter than the north.
2. The dark band at the equator is simply where the rings reflect/refract the least amount of light onto the surface.
3. There is also an http://www.ciclops.org//view_media.php?id=14617" which points out something else I did not know. The rings look completely different depending upon from which side they are illuminated. This would explain why the rings in the shadow do not line up with, nor are they even the same width as, the rings in the sunlight.


Mystery solved. The image is simply enhanced. And after only 4 hours of research, I know just about everything regarding Saturn and its moons.

And I would like to thank everyone for their help.

Thousands(well it seemed like it) of images viewed at: http://www.ciclops.org/index.php" : Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations.