Space / 2016-11-14
Saturn Watercolor Swirls
NASA's image library records Saturn Watercolor Swirls.
Saturn's north polar region displays its beautiful bands and swirls, which somewhat resemble the brushwork in a watercolor painting. Each latitudinal band represents air flowing at different speeds, and clouds at different heights, compared to neighboring bands. Where they meet and flow past each other, the bands' interactions produce many eddies a
A CLOSER LOOK
Saturn's north polar region displays its beautiful bands and swirls, which somewhat resemble the brushwork in a watercolor painting. Each latitudinal band represents air flowing at different speeds, and clouds at different heights, compared to neighboring bands. Where they meet and flow past each other, the bands' interactions produce many eddies and swirls. The northern polar region of Saturn is dominated by the famous hexagon shape (see PIA11682) which itself circumscribes the northern polar vortex -- seen as a dark spot at the planet's pole in the above image-- which is understood to the be eye of a hurricane-like storm (PIA14946). This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 20 degrees above the ring plane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle ca
Explore NASA's original image record for credits and available downloads.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
NASA Image and Video LibrarySaturn Watercolor SwirlsOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.