Today, Hubble released some images of a sequence of four eclipses on Saturn. Technically, we call these "transits", not eclipses, but a headline about "Saturn" and "transit" sounds to many like it refers to an interplanetary travel system in a science fiction story.

The images and a rather cool visualization can be found on the HubbleSite press release page.

While the images are definitely not science fiction, one can argue a bit about the visualization. Hubble is not a movie camera, so it could not have taken the frames necessary for a movie. But it is also not an animation, as it is based directly on astronomical observations. What is it? I prefer to call it a scientific visualization.

Let me explain ...