20th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Natural World
The Rocky Core

This is an enhanced photo of Saturn (without the rings). My camera settings and home-made techniques are geared to photographing the "solid" surface features on other planets, not for rings or gases. Is it possible that I'm photographing light reflected only from the planet's "solid" surfaces? For example, when I photographed Jupiter, another gas giant, I got distinct terrain formations inside the perimeter of "The Great Orange Spot". Beneath Saturn's gas layers lies a rocky core. I think that this may be what it looks like.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 09.2022
Date Uploaded: 10.2022
Photo Location: Honolulu, Hi, United States of America
Camera: Canon PowerShot SX720 HS
Copyright: © Kenneth Carroll