Wednesday, January 4, 2012

the size of saturn

here are a few gorgeous recent photos of the ringed planet saturn.

the first was featured as an astronomy picture of the day in december.

the rings of saturn are seen from the edge here, as the nearly horizontal blue line. there shadows can be seen on the surface of the planet.


also, at the top left of the image, you can see one of the most massive storms in the solar system. it has lasted for longer than an earth year so far and it's going strong!

to get an idea of just how big saturn and its current storm are, matt andrews created the image below to show the scale of the planet compared to the US.   pretty incredible!

link

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