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Release of Probe
Published:
December 7, 2004
Release of Probe
ENLARGE
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Saturn's moon Pan, orbiting in the Encke Gap near the top of the image, casts a short shadow on the A ring in this image taken about six months after the planet's August 2009 equinox. Pan (28 kilo...
Pan's Effects
NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image of a dark band on asteroid Vesta with its framing camera on August 19, 2011. The image has a resolution of about 260 meters per pixel.
A Dark Band on Vesta
This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows two overlapping impact craters on asteroid Vesta. The rims of the craters are both reasonably fresh but the larger crater must be older because the smal...
Successive Formation of Impact Craters
This set of enhanced-color maps made from data obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft show Saturn's moons Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione and Rhea. The global maps show the colorful splotches and ba...
Enhanced-Color Maps of Saturn Inner Moons
The Cassini spacecraft and Huygens probe begin their seven-year journey to the ringed planet. The successful launch of Cassini aboard a Titan IVB/Centaur occured at 4:43 a.m. EDT, October 15, 1997.
Wide View
This image, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on June 25, 2015, shows a portion of the southern hemisphere of dwarf planet Ceres from an altitude of 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers) with a resolution o...
Dawn Survey Orbit Image 43
NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained these side-by-side views of a dark hill of the surface of asteroid Vesta with its framing camera on August 19, 2011. The images have a resolution of about 260 meters...
Side by Side Views of a Dark Hill
This false color image of Triton is a composite of images taken through the violet, green and ultraviolet filters.
Triton
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a portion of the famous "White Rock" feature in Pollack Crater in the Sinus Sabaeus region of Mars.
White Rock
This image shows the surprise that startled Cassini scientists on the composite infrared spectrometer team when they got their first look at the infrared (heat) radiation from the south pole of Sat...
Enceladus Temperature Map
The newly assembled Cassini Saturn probe undergoes vibration and thermal testing at the JPL facilities in Pasadena, California. It is subjected to weeks of "shake and bake" tests that imitate the f...
Cassini Saturn Probe Undergoes Preflight Testing
This false-color image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft is of the of the giant asteroid Vesta. Scientists are studying image like these to better understand the different materials on the surface.
Different Shades of Vesta (False-Color)
This view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft, taken on May 29, 206, shows part of the floor and eastern rim on Consus Crater (40 miles or 64 kilometers wide) on Ceres.
Dawn LAMO Image 163
Geologic faults among craters on Saturn's moon Tethys are depicted in this image captured during a flyby of the moon by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Aug. 14, 2010. The brightly illuminated, promin...
Geology on Tethys
This image shows cratered terrain on dwarf planet Ceres, seen by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on June 15, 2016. The image is centered at approximately 3 degrees north latitude, 208 degrees east longitude.
Dawn LAMO Image 126
These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft are located in asteroid Vesta's Gegania quadrangle, a little south of Vesta's equator; boulders can be seen on the bottom side of the crater.
HAMO and LAMO Images of Rubria Crater
+ Unannotated version Almost all of the hydrocarbon seas and lakes on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan cluster around the north pole, as can be seen in this mosaic from NASA's Cassini mission....
Titan's North: The Big Picture -- Annotated
This view highlights tectonic faults and craters on Dione, an icy world that has undoubtedly experienced geologic activity since its formation. This view looks toward the leading hemisphere on Dio...
Dione Has Her Faults (Monochrome)
A lone moon hurtles past as the Cassini spacecraft stares into the clouds of Saturn. Cassini monitored clouds near Saturn's equator for nearly 20 hours during an important series of observations d...
Mimas in Transit
This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft of asteroid Vesta shows a part of the surface in Vesta's northern hemisphere, which is scoured by many grooves with different orientations.
Grooved Surface
This view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft features the rugged rim of Occator Crater at left. A number of thin fractures are visible, roughly parallel to the rim.
Dawn LAMO Image 118
These images were obtained by the Dawn spacecraft on July 23, 2011. The bottom two images are false-color, where different colors represent visible and infrared light wavelengths.
Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer False-Color Image
In KSC's Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, JPL technician Dan Maynard inserts the DVD into a shallow cavity between two pieces of aluminum designed to protect it from micrometeoroid impacts. Th...
DVD Installed
This image of Xevioso Crater was obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 16, 2018 from an altitude of about 470 miles (760 kilometers).
Xevioso Crater
In late 2016, the Cassini spacecraft will begin a completely new type of mission at Saturn.
Naming Contest 2014
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New data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft may solved a longstanding mystery. The length of a day on Saturn: 10 hours, 33 minutes and 38 seconds.
Scientists Finally Know What Time It Is on Saturn
New measurements of the mass of Saturn's rings reveal their age — and something they have in common with dinosaurs.
NASA's Cassini Data Show Saturn's Rings Relatively New
Data from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which explored Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule earlier this week, is yielding scientific discoveries daily.
New Ultima Thule Discoveries from NASA's New Horizons
Images of the Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule unveil the very first stages of solar system's history.
NASA's New Horizons Mission Reveals Entirely New Kind of World
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew past Ultima Thule in the early hours of New Year's Day, ushering in the era of exploration from the enigmatic Kuiper Belt.
New Horizons Successfully Explores Ultima Thule
A message from Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator of NASA's Science Missions Directorate, to Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
From the NASA Associate Administrator: Go New Horizons!
