NASA
Solar System Exploration
Our Galactic Neighborhood
Skip Navigation
menu
close modal
Resources
Great Dark Spot
Published:
December 17, 2004
Great Dark Spot
ENLARGE
Related
This anaglyph image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows the topography of the mountain-central complex in asteroid Vesta's south polar region. You need 3-D glasses to view this image.
Impact Crater and Mountain-central Complex in Vesta's South Polar Region (Anaglyph)
Titan's polar vortex stands illuminated where all else is in shadow.
High Vortex
Moving Cassini for Testing
Moving Cassini for Testing
The shadow of Saturn's moon Mimas dips onto the planet's rings and straddles the Cassini Division in this natural color image taken as Saturn approaches its August 2009 equinox. The novel illumina...
Across Resplendent Rings
Looking toward high northern latitudes on Titan, the Cassini spacecraft spies a banded pattern encircling the pole. This sort of feature is what scientists expect to see in the stratosphere of Tita...
The Banded North
This view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows high northern latitudes on Ceres. Dawn acquired the image on Oct. 17, 2015, from an altitude of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers). It has a resolution of 450 ...
Dawn HAMO Image 75
Saturn's rings appear curved in this Cassini spacecraft view, which also shows the moon Janus in the distance. Janus (179 kilometers, or 111 miles across) is at the bottom of the image and is fart...
Beyond Curved Rings
Saturn's largest moon, Titan, appears deceptively small paired here with Dione, Saturn's fourth-largest moon, in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Titan (3,200 miles or 5,150 kilometers ac...
True Colors, Deceptive Sizes
+View Video The bright crescent of Saturn's moon Enceladus slides past distant Rhea in this mutual event, or occultation, movie from Cassini. The movie was created from 40 original images taken o...
Enceladus Transits Rhea
A new day dawns on Saturn as the part of the planet seen here emerges once more into the Sun's light.
Sunrise on Saturn
Cassini captures a crater duo on Saturn's moon Dione that is superimposed on older, linear features. The upper of the pair, named Italus, is overprinted on a grouping of ancient troughs called Pete...
Helorus in Half-light
This image of Fabia AV-L-13, 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.
Fabia AV-L-13
View unannotated version. This sequence of three images, obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft over the course of about 10 minutes, shows the path of a newly found moonlet in a bright arc of Satur...
Tiny Moonlet Within G Ring Arc -- Annotated
This view is part of a montage of images from the NASA Cassini and Voyager missions shown in D Ring Revelations. The inset image from the montage is presented here by itself and in its original ori...
D Ring Revelations (Inset image)
A small moon appears from behind giant Saturn, accompanied by a warped view of the rings. Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) is seen here between the A and F rings. Close to the plan...
Warp Zone
Much as its name implies, tiny Epimetheus (Greek for hindsight) was discovered in hindsight. Astronomers originally thought that Janus and Epithemeus were the same object.
20-20 Hindsight
Saturn's moon Enceladus is only 505 kilometers (314 miles) across, small enough to fit within the length of the United Kingdom, as illustrated here. The intriguing icy moon also could fit comforta...
Enceladus to Scale
This artist's rendering shows a cross-section of the surface and subsurface of Saturn's moon Titan, with a possible model for the structure of underground liquid reservoirs there.
Titan's Subsurface Reservoirs -- Annotated
In a splendid portrait created by light and gravity, Saturn's lonely moon Mimas is seen against the cool, blue-streaked backdrop of Saturn's northern hemisphere. Delicate shadows cast by the rings...
Nature's Canvas
The Cassini spacecraft looks toward the high north on heavily cratered Mimas. The unmistakable Herschel impact crater is seen at lower left. Lit terrain seen here is on the anti-Saturn side of Mim...
High Above Mimas
NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image of dark material on hilltops on asteroid Vesta with its framing camera on August 18, 2011. The image has a resolution of about 260 meters per pixel.
Dark Material on Hilltops
Research suggests effects of sunlight produce the color of Jupiter's Great Red Spot.
Jupiter's Red Spot is Likely a Sunburn, Not a Blush
This 2006 image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows bands and a new dark spot in Uranus' atmosphere.
Hubble's Uranus
North Atlantic phytoplankton bloom off the coast of Iceland, June 24, 2010.
Dance of the Plankton
Two light sources illuminate Saturn's highly reflective moon Enceladus in this image featuring bright rings and the small moon Pandora in the foreground.
Dual Illuminated Enceladus
You Might Also Like
In a first, scientists have seen direct evidence of active volcanism on Earth’s twin, setting the stage for the agency’s VERITAS mission to investigate.
Magellan Data Reveals Volcanic Activity on Venus
New Horizons continues to shed light on the mysterious planets and smaller bodies of the outer solar system.
New Horizons Team Discusses Discoveries from the Kuiper Belt
Research reveals a new explanation for how the icy shell of Jupiter’s moon Europa rotates at a different rate than its interior.
Ocean Currents May Affect Rotation of Europa's Icy Crust
Based on observations from several NASA missions, the map details the path of the Moon’s shadow as it crosses the contiguous U.S. during eclipses in 2023 and 2024.
New NASA Map Details 2023 and 2024 Solar Eclipses in the US
Venus may be losing heat from geologic activity in regions called coronae, possibly like early tectonic activity on Earth.
Venus' ‘Squishy' Outer Shell May Be Resurfacing the Planet
Dr. Nicola Fox will serve as the associate administrator for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate.
NASA Administrator Selects New Head of Science