OMG! Aurora!

Written by
Emily Lakdawalla
October 12, 2009
This is SO cool. Unmannedspaceflight.com member Astro0 was fiddling around with an interesting-looking sequence of Cassini images when he discovered their purpose -- they were gathered in order to see if Cassini could catch aurorae flaring into being near Saturn's north pole. Cassini sure did! The animation is absolutely incredible. I've just posted a brief excerpt below to give you a bit of the flavor; download the full version to be mesmerized by spinning Saturn, streaking stars, and sudden auroral flares that rotate as they fade, floating above the visible edge of Saturn's disk.

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