Saturn- seen as never before....

This is a real photograph from the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn...Oct 06

With giant Saturn hanging in the blackness and sheltering Cassini from the Sun's blinding glare, the spacecraft viewed the planet and rings as never before.

It revealed previously unknown faint rings, even glimpsing their homeworld.

The images were acquired as Cassini drifted in Saturn's shadow for 12 hours, 1.3 million miles behind the gas planet.

Needless to say, my astronomy heroine from childhood, (and often on Sky at Night) Dr Caroline Porco, a.k.a The lady of The Rings, was behind the images, as the Lead of the imaging operations centre at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado.

The beauty of my favourite planet, the third largest object in the Solar System (after the Sun and Jupiter), is immeasurable. But this image is mindblowing...not just for it's beauty, but in just reinforcing how far humankind has come, to be in the position to be able to TAKE these images.

Science and beauty in one.

Astronomy is not just a science, but also an expression of how the human potential of logic and imagination can overcome obstacles, and fulfill desires of knowledge once considered to be dreams of fancy.

Long may it continue .....




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