JPL
Careers
Education
Science & Technology
JPL Logo
JPL Logo
Image

Southern Auroras Over Saturn

Jul 28, 2017
NASA's Cassini gazed toward high southern latitudes near Saturn's south pole to observe ghostly curtains of dancing light, Saturn's southern auroras, or southern lights.

Click here for animation of PIA21623
Click on the image for larger animation
Captioned video

Cassini gazed toward high southern latitudes near Saturn's south pole to observe ghostly curtains of dancing light -- Saturn's southern auroras, or southern lights. These natural light displays at the planet's poles are created by charged particles raining down into the upper atmosphere, making gases there glow.

The dark area at the top of this scene is Saturn's night side. The auroras rotate from left to right, curving around the planet as Saturn rotates over about 70 minutes, compressed here into a movie sequence of about five seconds.

Background stars are seen sliding behind the planet. Cassini was moving around Saturn during the observation, keeping its gaze fixed on a particular spot on the planet, which causes a shift in the distant background over the course of the observation.

Some of the stars seem to make a slight turn to the right just before disappearing. This effect is due to refraction -- the starlight gets bent as it passes through the atmosphere, which acts as a lens.

Random bright specks and streaks appearing from frame to frame are due to charged particles and cosmic rays hitting the camera detector.

For other examples of the auroras seen by Cassini earlier in the mission, see PIA13402 and PIA11681.

The aim of this observation was to observe seasonal changes in the brightness of Saturn's auroras, and to compare with the simultaneous observations made by Cassini's infrared and ultraviolet imaging spectrometers.

The original images in this movie sequence have a size of 256x256 pixels; both the original size and a version enlarged to 500x500 pixels are available here. The small image size is the result of a setting on the camera that allows for shorter exposure times than full-size (1024x1024 pixel) images. This enabled Cassini to take more frames in a short time and still capture enough photons from the auroras for them to be visible.

The images were taken in visible light using the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 20, 2017, at a distance of about 620,000 miles (1 million kilometers) from Saturn. The views look toward 74 degrees south latitude on Saturn. Image scale is about 0.9 mile (1.4 kilometers) per pixel on Saturn.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and https://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at https://ciclops.org.

Download JPG
Download TIFF
Mission
  • Mission to Saturn
Target
  • Saturn
Spacecraft
  • Cassini Orbiter
Instrument
  • Imaging Science Subsystem - Narrow Angle
Credit
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Keep Exploring

Enceladus in the Infrared (Map View)

Enceladus in the Infrared

Enceladus Global View with Plume (Artist's Rendering)

First Global Geologic Map of Titan

Enceladus Organics on Grains of Ice (Illustration)

Titan's Rimmed Lakes (Artist's Concept)

Texture Belts

Texture in the Outer Cassini Division

Mini-jets in the F Ring

Embedded Moons Sculpt Saturn's Rings

Related Topic

News .

NASA to Host Virtual Briefing on February Perseverance Mars Rover Landing

News .

NASA InSight’s ‘Mole’ Ends Its Journey on Mars

News .

NASA’s Juno Mission Expands Into the Future

News .

Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover to Capture Sounds From the Red Planet

Topic .

Solar System

News .

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Reaches Its 3,000th Day on Mars

News .

NASA Extends Exploration for Two Planetary Science Missions

News .

Celebrate the Perseverance Rover Landing With NASA's Student Challenge

News .

7 Things to Know About the NASA Rover About to Land on Mars

Video .

What's Up - January 2021

About JPL
Who We Are
Executive Council
Directors of JPL
JPL History
Documentary Series
Virtual Tour
Annual Reports
Missions
All
Current
Past
Future
News
All
Earth
Mars
Solar System
Universe
Technology
Galleries
Images
Videos
Audio
Podcasts
Infographics
Engage
JPL and the Community
Lecture Series
Public Tours
Events
Team Competitions
JPL Speakers Bureau
Topics
Solar System
Mars
Earth
Climate Change
Stars and Galaxies
Exoplanets
Technology
JPL Life
For Media
Contacts and Information
Press Kits
More
Asteroid Watch
Robotics at JPL
Subscribe to Newsletter
Social Media
Get the Latest from JPL
Follow Us

JPL is a federally funded research and development center managed for NASA by Caltech.

More from JPL
Careers Education Science & Technology Acquisitions JPL Store
Careers
Education
Science & Technology
Acquisitions
JPL Store
Related NASA Sites
Basics of Spaceflight
Climate Kids
Earth / Global Climate Change
Exoplanet Exploration
Mars Exploration
Solar System Exploration
Space Place
NASA's Eyes Visualization Project
Voyager Interstellar Mission
NASA
Caltech
Privacy
Image Policy
FAQ
Feedback
Site Manager: Veronica McGregor
Site Editors: Tony Greicius, Randal Jackson, Naomi Hartono