DIAL-UP ALERT: Holy crap, these true-color photographs of Saturn are gorgeous

[steve2470]

http://io9.com/5939668/holy-crap-these-true+color-photographs-of-saturn-are-gorgeous

Every time you think you've seen all there is to see of Saturn and its moons, the Cassini imaging team goes ahead and blows that notion right out of the water, along with your mind. In the series of images featured below, Saturn and its giant moon, Titan, show their true, jaw-dropping colors.

"For no other reason than that they are gorgeous, the Cassini imaging team is releasing today a set of fabulous images of Saturn and Titan…in living color…for your day-dreaming enjoyment," wrote Carolyn Porco, head of Cassini's Imaging Team and director of CICLOPS, over email. She continues:

Note that our presence at Saturn for the last eight years has made possible the sighting of subtle changes with time, and one such change is obvious here... As the seasons have advanced, and spring has come to the north and autumn to the south throughout the Saturn system, the azure blue in the northern winter Saturnian hemisphere that greeted Cassini upon its arrival in 2004 is now fading; and it is now the southern hemisphere, in its approach to winter, that is taking on a bluish hue.

Absolutely stunning. For more info on each of these photos, head over to CICLOPS, where you'll also find their massive, hi-res versions.

[Control-Z]

1. Just beautiful!

What is the horizontal line in pic #2?

[steve2470]

2. "Saturn's rings obscure part of Titan's colorful visage in this image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft

http://www.ciclops.org/view/7276/Obscured_by_Rings

[dogknob]

3. Thanks!

[steve2470]

5. very welcome ! nt

[Care Acutely]

4. whoa

they ARE

[central scrutinizer]

6. Please don't post pictures of Uranus without the NSFW warning

[SlipperySlope]

15. What kind of camera would you need for those pictures?

Something like this?

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. We built that!

Sorry, could not help.

[DonRedwood]

8. amazing...thank you for sharing these

i would have missed them otherwise and these are moving and beautiful. :0)

[Poll_Blind]

9. Saturn's polar hexagon is...creepy-cool! nt

PB

[ThoughtCriminal]

10. Still my favorite Saturn Image

Chesley Bonestell's "Saturn From Titan" painting from 1947. As it turned out, Titan's atmosphere is much to dense to see Saturn from the surface, but this painting (and others) inspired a generation of space exploration enthusiasts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesley_Bonestell

[Delphinus]

11. *LOVE*

this picture ...

[ZenLefty]

12. The scale of Saturn

It's hard to fathom how mind-numbingly big Saturn is, just looking at .jpg images on our little 27" monitors at home. Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy wrote a pretty good article about it once.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/12/19/the-scale-of-saturn/

[flamingdem]

13. bitchin' planet dude nt

[JDPriestly]

14. The planet and the gasses around it seem alive, so vibrant.

[CrispyQ]

16. They are fab!!

[Zalatix]

17. Would be GREAT if we could ever get photos from inside the atmosphere

of Saturn, and especially Jupiter.

[lunatica]

18. These are great.

Thanks!