A seemingly peaceful Saturn is depicted in this HST image of Saturn taken on August 16, 1990. The planet's north pole is tilted towards Earth at an angle of 24°, revealing atmospheric features in the 'northern polar hood'. Like Jupiter, Saturn is a gas giant, but there is much less detail and color contrast visible in its cloud bands.
Saturn's 'A' and 'B' rings are divided by the Cassini Division, the wide black band just outside the brightest part of the rings. The faint 'C' ring lies within the bright 'A' ring. The subtle Ericke Division, a narrow dark gap near the outer edge of the outermost ring visible, is clearly seen. Although this thin gap was glimpsed through telescopes from Earth as early as 1837, it has not been successfully imaged from the ground.
Camera: WF/PC- 1 in WF mode
Technical Information: Exposures through three color filters
(blue, green and red) combined to create the color image.
Credit: NASA
