Atmospheric Motion

Mysterious Titan begins to appear more familiar as the Cassini spacecraft explores the once hidden surface of this Earth-like moon. + View the interactive feature

NASA's Cassini spacecraft obtained these views of the south polar area of Saturn's moon Enceladus in visible and near-visible (ultraviolet and infrared) light and synthetic-aperture radar (SAR). Th...

The clumpy disturbed appearance of the brilliant F ring constantly changes. The irregular structure of the ring is due, in large part, to the gravitational perturbations on the ring material by one...

This map of Titan's surface illustrates the regions that will be imaged by Cassini during the spacecraft's close flyby of the smog-enshrouded moon on April 16, 2005. At closest approach, the spac...

This image of Bellecia AV-L-02, from the atlas of the giant asteroid Vesta, was created from images taken as NASA's Dawn mission flew around the object, also known as a protoplanet.

Looking down through the A ring and Cassini Division, the Cassini spacecraft sees the bright limb of Saturn. The view shows a portion the rings from the outer B ring, at upper right, to the F ring ...

Saturn's unusual appearance in this picture is a result of the planet being imaged via an infrared filter.

Saturn's chaotically tumbling moon Hyperion is captured in this view. At the top is a 130-kilometer-wide (80-mile) crater seen in some NASA Voyager spacecraft images. Detecting specific features i...

Saturn's icy moon Mimas is dwarfed by the planet's enormous rings.

From the Dark Side December 10, 2004 Full-Res: PIA06529 As Cassini swung around to the dark side of the planet during its first close ...

The low illumination angle near the terminator makes visible the steep topography of craters on Rhea's battered surface. This view is centered on 10 degrees north latitude, 128 degrees west longi...

Candor Chasma in central Valles Marineris is filled with light-toned layered deposits thought to be sandstones.

This video describes a computer model that proposes a flow vortex in Saturn's upper atmosphere or ionosphere can explain periodic signatures observed by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in Saturn's magnet...

The eastern rim of the large crater Odysseus is visible along the terminator in this image of Saturn's moon Tethys. This enormous impact feature is the largest on Tethys, at approximately 450 kilo...

This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 22, 2015, from a distance of 3,200 miles (5,100 kilometers) with a resolution of 1,600 feet (480 meters) per pixel.

This Cassini spacecraft image provides a view of the southern portion of Tethys' trailing hemisphere. Prominent features include the huge canyon, Ithaca Chasma, approximately centered in this view...

The shadow of the moon Mimas is seen through the unlit side of the Cassini Division of Saturn's rings. As Saturn approaches its August 2009 equinox, the planet's moons cast shadows onto the rings....

Overexposed Mimas stands starkly against the disk of Saturn as the dim shadow of Epimetheus is captured through the C ring in the planet's rings (right of center at the bottom of the image). In rea...

Titan's high haze layers are amazing. Cassini captured this detailed view of the relatively faint haze in Titan's upper atmosphere as it receded from its close encounter on March 31, 2005. Similar...

A trio of icy moons crowds together along the Cassini spacecraft's line of sight. Brilliant Enceladus (504 kilometers, or 313 miles across) sits on the planet's shadow-draped limb at center; Pando...

This image of Saturn's outer A ring features the small moon Daphnis and the waves it raises in the edges of the Keeler Gap. The image was taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Sept. 13, 2017. It is...

Saturn's moon Tethys with its prominent Odysseus Crater silently slips behind Saturn's largest moon Titan and then emerges on the other side. Tethys is not actually enshrouded in Titan's atmospher...

Cassini spies a shadow cast by a vertically extended structure or object in the F ring in this image taken as Saturn approaches its August 2009 equinox. The structure can be seen as a bulge near t...

This high resolution image of the icy crust of Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, reveals a surface criss-crossed by multiple sets of ridges and fractures. 

During its final close flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus, NASA's Cassini spacecraft revisited a landscape, and a mystery, that it had originally glimpsed more than 10 years earlier.