Note the bright disk of the planet with a gradual fading toward the edge,
called limb darkening. This illustrates a
gradual cooling outward in Saturn's atmosphere. The rings are seen in
emission outside the disk but then in front of
the planet they absorb the radiation from the bright disk behind, appearing
as a dark band. In visual light they appear
bright everywhere because they reflect the incident sunlight but at radio
wavelengths the sunlight is fainter and we see
the actual emission from Saturn.
Investigator(s): I. de Pater, J.R. Dickel
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Telescope
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VLA
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Date of Observation
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1982-01-25
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Type of Observation
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Continuum Observations
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Band
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U
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Wavelength
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2.0 cm
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Frequency
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15 GHz
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Technical Caption
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Observing run - 1982 January 24-25 at the VLA
Integration time - 3 hours
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