The heat from Saturn鈥檚 interior backlights clouds deep within its atmosphere, a new image from the Cassini spacecraft reveals.
The 鈥淐hinese lantern鈥� effect was produced by combining images taken at several wavelengths from the craft鈥檚 visual and infrared mapping spectrometer in February 2006. The images were taken when Cassini was 1.6 million kilometres away from the planet and in the same plane as its famous rings.
In the nighttime portion of the image (left), the heat from Saturn鈥檚 interior illuminates clouds at lower altitudes from behind. Bright red areas show relatively cloud-free zones, while darker red regions mark cloudy spots. In the 鈥渄aylit鈥� portion of the image, however, sunlight scatters off haze high in the atmosphere (right).
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The brighter glow of the northern hemisphere suggests it has fewer clouds and hazes than the southern hemisphere, a disparity researchers believe is seasonal. The balance may shift in a few years, when the northern hemisphere enters its springtime.
