NASA Cassini: JPL Video explains Saturn's Equinox

NASA Cassini mission observing Saturn bringing back pictures and scientific data from the ringed planet.

Click the picture to run the JPL video

The pictures below are extracted from the video.



The pictures show the point, during Saturn's orbit of the Sun, when Saturn tilts from South facing to North facing.

At this point, the Equinox, Saturn's rings are edge on to the Sun' rays and because of this, the rings begin to cool.



This picture shows the temperature differential between Saturn's rings normal temperature (120 kelvin) and their temperature at the transient Equinox (40 kelvin).