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Atmospheric Illusion

Aug. 2, 2005
Believe it or not, this extreme close-up of Saturn's swirling clouds was acquired by NASA's Cassini spacecraft from more than one million kilometers (621,370 miles) from the gas giant planet.

Believe it or not, this extreme close-up of Saturn's swirling clouds was acquired from more than one million kilometers (621,370 miles) from the gas giant planet. The rings' image is severely bent by atmospheric refraction as they pass behind the planet.

The dark region in the rings is the 4,800-kilometer-wide (2,980 mile) Cassini Division.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 25, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1 million kilometers (600,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.

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