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High-Altitude Clouds
Published:
December 16, 2004
High-Altitude Clouds
ENLARGE
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Saturn looms large before the Cassini spacecraft, its blustery cloud bands in restless motion. This view looks toward Saturn's mid-northern latitudes from about 37 degrees above the ringplane. Rin...
Scenic Overlook
+ See contrast-enhanced version NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shows a new view of Saturn’s moon Enceladus in a whole-disk mosaic of the geologically active moon's leading, or western, hemisphere. Thi...
Enceladus' Leading Hemisphere
This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows large craters Urvara (top) and Yalode (bottom) on dwarf planet Ceres. The two giant craters were formed at different times. Urvara is about 120-140 mill...
Urvara and Yalode: Giant Craters on Ceres
Saturn's second largest moon Rhea pops in and out of view behind the planet's rings in this image from the Cassini spacecraft, which includes the smaller moon Epimetheus. Rhea (1,528 kilometers, o...
Peekaboo Rhea
ORIGINAL CAPTION: Workers begin unloading the Cassini orbiter from a U.S. Air Force C-17 air cargo plane after its arrival at KSC’s Shuttle Landing Facility from Edwards Air Force Base, California.
Cassini Arrival
NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image with its framing camera on Aug. 26, 2011. The detail in this image shows impacts of all sizes, grooves, scarps and smooth areas.
Impacts and Grooves on Vesta
This image, taken on June 7, 2015 by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows a portion of the southern hemisphere of Ceres from an altitude of 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers). The crater at the lower left is ...
Dawn Survey Orbit Image 48
A particularly strong jet stream churns through Saturn's northern hemisphere in this false-color view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Clouds associated with the jet stream can be seen in the upper...
Strong Jet in False Colors
Across the expanse of Saturn's rings, the Cassini spacecraft spies two small moons in consort. Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across) is seen exterior to the bright outer edge of the A ring. Da...
Ring Moon Rendezvous
After a year and a half in orbit, the Cassini spacecraft has begun to image Saturn's northern hemisphere in detail. The northern latitudes currently are experiencing winter, and atmospheric scienti...
Feathery Northern Clouds
This processed image from Cassini's Aug. 22, 2005, flyby of Titan reveals mid-latitudes on the moon's Saturn-facing side. This region has been imaged previously by Cassini, although the recent appr...
Titan's Sideways Cipher
Saturn has 31 known satellites. They vary greatly in size, shape and appearance.
Saturn's Icy Satellites
Cassini's powerful radar eyes have uncovered a geologic goldmine in a region called Xanadu on Saturn's moon Titan. Panning west to east, the geologic features include river channels, mountains and ...
Titan's Geological Goldmine
Rhea displays a marked color contrast from north to south that is particularly easy to see in the extreme color-enhanced Cassini spacecraft view presented here. A clear filter image is also presen...
Drawing Out Details
As seasons change on Saturn, and sunlight creeps farther north, the region surrounding the north pole is steadily coming to light. This scene reveals many features in Saturn's dynamic and beautifu...
Coming to Light
The Cassini spacecraft watches Pandora, one of the F ring's two shepherding moons, orbiting beyond the thin ring. The small moon can be seen on the left of this image. Pandora (81 kilometers, or 5...
Dual-Illuminated Pandora
Possible variations in chemical composition from one part of Saturn's ring system to another are visible in this Voyager 2 picture as subtle color variations that can be recorded with special compu...
Ring Color Variations
The Cassini spacecraft takes a look at Saturn's diffuse E ring which is formed from icy material spewing out of the south pole of the moon Enceladus. See Casting a Shadow to learn more about how E...
Eyeing the E Ring
Saturn's moon Prometheus casts a shadow on the narrow F ring in this image captured weeks after the planet's August 2009 equinox. The gravity of potato-shaped Prometheus (86 kilometers, or 53 mile...
Shadow on a Thin Ring
Distant Rhea August 26, 2004 Full-Res: PIA06463 Cassini caught a hint of Rhea's heavily cratered surface as it sped rapidly away f...
Distant Rhea
Artist's concept of Cassini orbiter crossing Saturn's ring plane.
Crossing the Ring Plane
NASA's Dawn spacecraft in thermal vacuum chamber.
Dawn Spacecraft in Thermal Vacuum Chamber
This image, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows the surface of dwarf planet Ceres from an altitude of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers). The image was taken on August 21, 2015, and has a resolution o...
Dawn HAMO Image 25
This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows a detailed view of three craters, informally nicknamed 'Snowman' by the camera's team members.
Detailed 'Snowman' Crater
This global map of Saturn's moon Tethys was created using images taken during Cassini spacecraft flybys, with Voyager images filling in the gaps in Cassini's coverage. The map is an equidistant (s...
Map of Tethys -- August 2008
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Data from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which explored Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule earlier this week, is yielding scientific discoveries daily.
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NASA's New Horizons Mission Reveals Entirely New Kind of World
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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!
