Jewel of the Solar System

NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured this view of golden-hued Saturn and its main rings. This mosaic was made from 36 images in three color filters obtained by Cassini's imaging science subsystem on Oct. 10, 2013. The view is in natural color, as human eyes would see it. When Cassini arrived at Saturn in 2004, more of the northern hemisphere had a bluish hue and it was northern winter. The golden tones dominated the southern hemisphere, where it was southern summer. But as the seasons changed, and northern spring went into full swing, the colors changed in each hemisphere. Golden tones dominated the northern hemisphere and the bluish color in the north was confined to a tighter circle around the north pole. The southern hemisphere started getting bluer, too. The rings shown here include Saturn's main rings. The rings known as the C, B and A rings -- listed here in order of closeness to Saturn -- are easily seen. The F ring is also there, but not easily seen without enhancing the contrast of the image. (Rings were named in order of their discovery rather than their position around Saturn.) The rings also cast a shadow on Saturn at the limb of the planet in the lower right quadrant.