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Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Saturn’s north polar hexagon from Cassini VIMS

Saturn’s north polar hexagon from Cassini VIMS
Saturn’s north polar hexagon from Cassini VIMS This image of Saturn's north pole was taken by Cassini's VIMS spectrometer at a mid-infrared wavelength of 5 microns. It was winter at Saturn's north pole; all illumination is thermal radiation (heat) welling up from Saturn's depths. Some of the heat radiation is blocked by clouds floating in Saturn's atmosphere at about 75 kilometers below the cloud tops that can be seen in visible wavelengths. The pressure at that level is about three times Earth's atmospheric pressure. The patterns in the image are created by alternating cloudy and clear areas. The image has been contrast-reversed so that the glouds show up as bright spots, while open areas appear dark. NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona

Learn more about the image at Photojournal. There's also an animated version.