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Equinox at Saturn

Published: September 21, 2009

After a 15-year wait, equinox arrived at Saturn and Cassini was there to witness the spectacle of light and shadow.

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This graphic shows a 3-D model of 98 geysers whose source locations and tilts were found in a Cassini imaging survey of Enceladus' south polar terrain by the method of triangulation.
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This graphic shows a 3-D model of 98 geysers whose source locations and tilts were found in a Cassini imaging survey of Enceladus' south polar terrain by the method of triangulation.
Geyser Basin in 3-D (video)
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Ring World Highlights
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Great Red Spot
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Great Red Spot
Great Red Spot
One of the glittering trails caused by small objects punching through Saturn's F ring is highlighted in this movie from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
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One of the glittering trails caused by small objects punching through Saturn's F ring is highlighted in this movie from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
Glittering Trail in Saturn's F Ring (Narrated)
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Io Color Eclipse
Io Color Eclipse
This movie shows a quick succession of multiple products of Titan's surface from the Cassini orbiter and the European Space Agency's Huygens probe.
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Screenshot from the 'Huygens Landing Site' movie
Huygens Landing Site Movie
This infrared movie from NASA's Cassini mission shows the churning of the curious six-sided jet stream at Saturn's north pole known as "the hexagon."
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Hexagon in Silhouette
What incredible things will the Cassini spacecraft at Saturn see and do over the next few years?
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Cassini's coming attractions at Saturn
Cassini: Coming Attractions at Saturn
Surrounding Earth is a giant magnetic field called the magnetosphere. Its shape is defined not only by the planet's north and south magnetic poles, but also by a steady stream of particles coming i...
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Visualization showing Earth's magnetosphere trailing behind it in reaction to the solar wind.
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This video shows the intriguing Occator Crater on Ceres, home to the dwarf planet's brightest area.
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This colorful spectrogram represents data collected by Cassini's Radio and Plasma Wave Science instrument as it crossed through Saturn's D ring on May 28, 2017.
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Color image shows rise in sound as Cassini crossed the D-ring.
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Giovanni Cassini, the astronomer, discovers a moon near Saturn. Half is dark as coal. The other half, bright as snow. Three centuries later, Cassini, the spacecraft, flies by for a close look.
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Screenshot from the 'Backstage at Iapetus' movie
Backstage Pass to Iapetus
This short animation created by Cassini's mission planning team shows how a Titan flyby will be used to move the spacecraft's course from orbiting Cassini's outer ring (F ring) to an orbit that tak...
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Animation showing Cassini's orbit change to dive between the planet and its rings.
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A recreation of Huygen's historic descent to Saturn's giant moon Titan in January 2005.
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Cassini scientist Dr. Kevin Baines discusses Saturn's Cyclones.
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Kevin Baines
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In this movie, strung together from a series of images provided by the framing camera on NASA's Dawn spacecraft, we see a full rotation of Vesta, which occurs over the course of roughly five hours. 
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In this movie, strung together from a series of images provided by the framing camera on NASA's Dawn spacecraft, we see a full rotation of Vesta, which occurs over the course of roughly five hours.
Vesta Full Rotation Movie
NASA's Cassini spacecraft stared at Saturn for nearly 44 hours on April 25­ to 27, 2016, to obtain this movie showing just over four Saturn days.
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Cassini stared at Saturn for nearly 44 hours
Staring at Saturn

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