Infrared view of Saturn's south pole

This image was taken by the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens spacecraft narrow-angle camera. It shows Saturn's southern polar region, with interesting details in the swirling boundaries between cloud bands.

Two faint spots are visible at right, north and south of the boundary of the dark polar collar. The dark spot at the bottom of the image marks the planet's south pole.

The image was taken on 19 July 2004, from a distance of 6.2 million kilometres, through a filter which lets infrared light pass through. The image scale is 36 kilometres per pixel. Contrast was slightly enhanced to bring out features in the atmosphere.