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Long-Range View
Published:
December 16, 2004
Long-Range View
ENLARGE
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NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image of bright and dark materials on Vesta's surface on August 6, 2011. This image was taken through the framing camera's clear filter aboard the spacecraft.
Bright and Dark Material on Vesta's Surface
Two moons orbit serenely before Saturn while large storms churn through the planet's southern hemisphere. The moon Mimas (396 kilometers, or 246 miles across) is on the right. Dione (1,123 kilomet...
Attendant Pair
The Cassini spacecraft views the rugged surface of Mimas -- half lit by the Sun, and half lit by reflected light from Saturn. On the sunlit western limb lies the great Herschel impact crater. The ...
Rough, Icy Mimas
Craters imprinted upon other craters record the long history of impacts endured by Saturn's moon Rhea. This view looks toward the mid-southern latitudes of the Saturn-facing side of Rhea (1,528 ki...
Crater Upon Crater
Twice as far from the Sun as Jupiter, Saturn's colder temperatures mean that clouds form lower in its atmosphere. As a result, the visible cloud patterns - so striking on Jupiter - occur deeper ins...
Deep Clouds
These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft show Sextilia crater on asteroid Vesta.
Topography and Albedo Image of Sextilia Crater
This image was taken on 2016-09-21 14:48 (PDT) and received on Earth 2016-09-21 22:59 (PDT).
Image of Saturn
This view of Ceres, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on December 10, 2015, shows an area in the southern mid-latitudes of the dwarf planet.
Dawn's Lowest Orbit: Southern Mid-Latitudes
The Cassini spacecraft examines the dark region of Senkyo on Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Senkyo is in the center of the image, and it lies just south of the moon's equator. For an earlier view o...
Centered on Senkyo
This view of the topography of asteroid Vesta's surface is composed of several images obtained with the framing camera on NASA's Dawn spacecraft on August 6, 2011. The image mosaic is shown superim...
Topography of Vesta's Surface
Intricate C Ring Details December 7, 2004 Full-Res: PIA06537 Saturn's inner C ring spreads across the field of view, showing the char...
Intricate C Ring Details
Prometheus has just passed -- and gravitationally disturbed -- some of the fine particulate material in the F ring, creating the sheared gap visible in the inner strands of the ring. Prometheus is...
Passing Lane
+ 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 image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft of asteroid Vesta shows Eusebia crater, which is the large crater in the top right of the image.
Eusebia Crater
This is a raw, or unprocessed, image taken by the Cassini spacecraft during its close flyby of Saturn's moon Iapetus on Sept. 10, 2007.
Iapetus -- raw image
This artist concept shows the detection of an atmosphere on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus. The Cassini magnetometer instrument is designed to measure the magnitude and direction of the magnetic fiel...
Atmosphere on Enceladus
This very deep combined image shows the interstellar asteroid ‘Oumuamua at the center of the image.
Telescope Image of 'Oumuamua
These two images illustrate just how far Cassini traveled to get to Saturn. On the left is one of the earliest images Cassini took of the ringed planet; On the right is one of Cassini's final image...
Alpha and Omega
Saturn's shadow spreads across the rings here, extending beyond the F ring and its tenuous, flanking ringlets. This view catches Saturn's moon Mimas on its day-long sojourn around the planet. Mima...
Rubbing-out the Rings
Epimetheus floats in the distance below center, showing only the barest hint of its irregular shape. Pandora hides herself in the ringplane, near upper right, appearing as little more than a bump. ...
Ring-Hugging Moons
The Cassini spacecraft observes the wispy terrain that covers the trailing side of Rhea. North on Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) is up and rotated 27 degrees to the right. The image...
Trailing Rhea
A recent study finds that the lake known as Ontario Lacus on Saturn's moon Titan (left) bears striking similarity to a salt pan on Earth known as the Etosha Pan (right). A salt pan is a lake bed th...
Titan and Earth Similarities
In the top right of this Cassini image, the southern end of Titan's huge lake of liquid hydrocarbons called Kraken Mare is visible near the moon's north pole. See Maps of Titan - January 2009 to l...
Titan's Northern Lake
Enceladus' intriguing south-polar jets are viewed from afar, backlit by sunlight while the moon itself glows softly in reflected Saturn-shine.
Jets from a Distance
Saturn's rings throw imposing shadows and relegate parts of the planet's northern regions to darkness. Three thin and bright arcs in this scene represent three well-known gaps in the immense ring s...
Gaps in the Darkness
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