                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2022 July 24

                       Saturn in Infrared from Cassini
      Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SSI; Processing: Maksim Kakitsev

   Explanation: Many details of Saturn appear clearly in infrared light.
   Bands of clouds show great structure, including long stretching storms.
   Also quite striking in infrared is the unusual hexagonal cloud pattern
   surrounding Saturn's North Pole. Each side of the dark hexagon spans
   roughly the width of our Earth. The hexagon's existence was not
   predicted, and its origin and likely stability remains a topic of
   research. Saturn's famous rings circle the planet and cast shadows
   below the equator. The featured image was taken by the robotic Cassini
   spacecraft in 2014 in several infrared colors. In 2017 September, the
   Cassini mission was brought to a dramatic conclusion when the
   spacecraft was directed to dive into ringed giant.

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