Saturn

https://www.nrao.edu/archives/plugins/Dropbox/files/Saturn_VR54_hi.jpg

Description

Note the bright disk of the planet with a gradual fading toward the edge, called limb darkening. This illustrates a gradual cooling outward in Saturn's atmosphere. The rings are seen in emission outside the disk but then in front of the planet they absorb the radiation from the bright disk behind, appearing as a dark band. In visual light they appear bright everywhere because they reflect the incident sunlight but at radio wavelengths the sunlight is fainter and we see the actual emission from Saturn.
Observing run - 1982 January 24-25 at the VLA Integration time - 3 hours

Creator

Legacy Astronomical Images

Rights

NRAO/AUI/NSF does not hold full copyright for this image. Contact the archivist for details.

Type

Legacy Astronomical Image

Object Name

Saturn

Investigators

I. de Pater, J.R. Dickel

Telescope

Very Large Array (VLA)

Observation Date

1982-01-25

Type of Observation

continuum

Band

U

Wavelength

2.0 cm

Frequency

15 GHz

Center of Image

RA 25:0:0.000, Dec: 0:0:0.000 (J2000)

Notes

Contact the archivist for a high resolution tif of this image.

Series

Solar System Series

Unit

Planets Unit

Citation

Legacy Astronomical Images, “Saturn,” NRAO/AUI Archives, accessed March 29, 2024, https://www.nrao.edu/archives/items/show/33612.