Saturn infrared
Looking at the planet using the infrared part of the light spectrum reveals the fascinating swirls and streaks created by clouds above the planet's northern hemisphere. The view was produced by space imaging enthusiast Kevin Gill, an engineer at Nasa
With its blue, green and cream-coloured swirls, in some ways this image resembles an abstract work of art. But the photograph released by Nasa actually shows Saturn's atmosphere in stunning detail, and was taken using an infrared filter. Looking at the planet using the infrared part of the light spectrum reveals the fascinating swirls and streaks created by clouds above the planet's northern hemisphere.

The view was produced by space imaging enthusiast Kevin Gill, an engineer at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. The view was made using images taken by Cassini's wide-angle camera on July 20, 2016, using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to infrared light,' Nasa said. Filters like these, which are sensitive to absorption and scattering of sunlight by methane in Saturn's atmosphere, have been useful throughout Cassini's mission.

They can be used to determining the structure and depth of cloud features in the atmosphere. This new image comes just a week after an image showing the rings of Saturn appearing to melt. Nasa said the amazing optical illusion was caused by light being reflected by Cassini's camera. It showed Saturn's A and F rings appear bizarrely warped where they intersect the planet's limb, whose atmosphere acts here like a very big lens.

'In its upper regions, Saturn's atmosphere absorbs some of the light reflected by the rings as it passes through. 'But absorption is not the only thing that happens to that light,' explained Nasa. 'As it passes from space to the atmosphere and back out into space towards Cassini's cameras, its path is refracted, or bent. The result is that the ring's image appears warped.'

Cassini completed its initial four-year mission to explore the Saturn System in June 2008 and the first extended mission in September 2010. The spacecraft is now seeking to make exciting new discoveries in a second extended mission extending until September next year.

Saturn's moons may be younger than the dinosaurs

While Saturn's rings and moons were first spotted in 1600s, there is an ongoing debate about how old they are. Many assume that they are primordial - as old as the planet itself - making them around four billion years old.

However, evidence published last month suggests the majority of its moons are significantly younger than this and may have even formed at the same time dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

In 2012, French astronomers discovered that tidal effects, caused by gravity of the inner moons with fluids in Saturn's interior, are causing the moons to spiral outward relatively quickly. This suggests the moons, and presumably the rings, are younger than the planet itself.

A team of researchers, led by Matija Cuk, principal investigator at the SETI Institute in California, used computer modeling to infer the past behaviour of Saturn's icy inner moons. His team also used results from Nasa's Cassini mission to study ice geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus.

The orbits of Tethys, Dione and Rhea are less altered than previously thought and their relatively small orbital tilts suggest they haven't crossed many orbital resonances. This means they formed not far from where they are now.

Assuming the energy powering the geysers on Enceladus comes directly from tidal interactions, and that moon's level of geothermal activity is more or less constant, then tides within Saturn are strong. According to the team's analysis, these would move the satellite by the small amount indicated by the simulations in only about 100 million years. This would date the formation of the major moons of Saturn, with the exception of more distant Titan and Iapetus, to the Cretaceous Period, the era of the dinosaurs.