Out of the blue, Saturn reveals its true colours (stunning photo)

The Australian ^ | February 10, 2005 | Leigh Dayton, Science writer

[Lazamataz]

THE first true colour image of Saturn reveals that the ringed planet is not the silver orb visible from Earth but a deep shade of blue.

Sh*t. That sucks. Now I have to redecorate the entire solar system.

[kassie]

Amazing picture.

[r9etb]

If this were a private enterprise, we'd have been to the Jupiter and Saturn already, and the asteroid belt would be gone after we have mined them all out. ;)

You forgot the /sarcasm tag....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Wow.

[inn8]

visible light isn't exactly what should be used to study space objects.

it's quite inaccure, really, and bounces off the slightests things (dust clounds, etc)

these days, we can use anything from low-band radar to infrared (all much lower and less sensitive than visible light) to make an image.

most new space imaging technology pays little attention to visible light, hence why color correction is required (and is not always possible to do accuratly)

[SW6906]

Sarcasm? What sarcasm?

[sam_paine]

I'm not talking about "doing science." I'm talking about marketing fotos for publicity! It's the marketing that enables the funding for "the science."

[MineralMan]

"If this were a private enterprise, we'd have been to the Jupiter and Saturn already, and the asteroid belt would be gone after we have mined them all out. ;)"

Nah, they'd have just outsourced the work to India, and we would be waiting on the phone.

[Politically Correct]

Appears yellowish in my 12.5" dob as well.
Makes you wonder if they really did get the color right.

[winner3000]

I also was expecting to see a picture of the new Saturn...car!

[Gumption]

If this were a private enterprise

Who's stopping you?

[LTCJ]

Boulder, uh?

In a related announcement, Ward Churchill took note of the small round Nazi in the lower portion of the image.

[fieldmarshaldj]

For the record, I've never accepted the leftist media force-feeding us the line that "Blue = 'Rat" "Red = Republican." Red has ALWAYS been accepted as a leftist color and blue a conservative color. A "Red" area is and will always be a liberal 'Rat color, period.

[Atlas Sneezed]

I'll wait for the retraction regarding "true color."

Unless someone can explain what happens to re-color that reflected blue light on its way to my earthbound eyes, and to earthbound telescopes (and Hubble.)

[familyop]

Could it be that you're not seeing the northern hemisphere as much from your telescopes?

[BenLurkin]

Yes. There is something wrong here.

[BenLurkin]

Here's as hot taken from earth (I think) by an amateur astonomer. No false color . . .

[RMDupree]

From the caption...

This results in sunlight being scattered at shorter (bluer) wavelengths, thus giving the northernmost latitudes their bluish appearance at visible wavelengths.

Now I'm no space expert, but if you look at the other pics of Saturn, the planet goes from light to dark from the center outwards.

If this picture is of the northernmost part, couldn't it very well be bluish as lighten to orange as you look south?

[Politically Correct]

I suppose, although I don't recall it ever looking blue even when end on when you can see both hemispheres.

Maybe it gets blue when you look away from the sun at that particular angle, an angle you don't see from here on earth.

[RightWhale]

Saturn is slightly yellowish to my eye. Maybe cutting down the intensity by viewing through neutral sunglasses brings out the blue.