The first color image of Jupiter taken by cameras on the Cassini spacecraft shows that weather on the giant planet is the same kind of weather that Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft photographed more than 21 years ago. The moon Europa is also visible.

This color image of Jupiter was taken by the Cassini narrow angle camera from a distance of 81.3 million kilometers (about 50 million miles). Jupiter's moon Europa is seen at the right, casting a shadow on the planet. It is this satellite which scientists believe holds promise of a liquid ocean beneath its surface. Photo: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

The color photo is made from images taken by the Cassini narrow angle camera in the blue, green and red regions of the spectrum on Wednesday, Oct. 4, when the spacecraft was 81.3 million kilometers (about 50 million miles) from the planet. The composite-color photo is therefore close to the true color of Jupiter that one would see through an Earth-based telescope.

"We have acquired startlingly sharp images of the planet in a variety of filters, from the ultraviolet into the near infrared," said Cassini Imaging Science team leader Carolyn C. Porco of the University of Arizona.

The photo release has special significance for Porco -- an acknowledged die-hard Beatles fan. "This is our first color image from Cassini and my gift to John Lennon - one of planet Earth's brightest stars, and a person who gave us all boundless joy, pleasure and inspiration," Porco said. "I am pleased that I can celebrate his birthday in this way," Porco said of the late Beatle. Lennon would have been 60 today.

CICLOPS, the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations, is the hub of imaging team operations and is located in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona in Tucson. CICLOPS houses the Cassini Imaging Diary, the entire collection of images that will document Cassini's travels over the next decade on its fly by Jupiter and into Saturn orbit for its four-year tour of the Saturn system.

Cassini is a joint mission of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Cassini program for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.