Backstage Pass to Iapetus

Radio signals sent by NASA's Cassini spacecraft to Earth through Saturn's rings revealed the presence of highly unusual regular formations of densely grouped ring particles. The harmonic ring struc...

It was a busy decade for Cassini. Here is the breakdown.

Enceladus' plume was found to have a comet-like chemistry by Cassini's Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer during its fly-through of the plume on Mar. 12, 2008. Water vapor, methane, carbon monoxide,...

This free NASA e-Book celebrates Saturn as seen through the eyes of the Cassini spacecraft. 

A simplified model of Jupiter's massive magnetic field, known as a  magnetosphere.

This illustration shows Cassini above Saturn's northern hemisphere prior to making one of its Grand Finale dives.

This graphic illustrates Cassini's trajectory, or flight path, during the final two phases of its mission. The 20 Ring-Grazing Orbits are shown in gray; the 22 Grand Finale Orbits are shown in blue...

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...

This figure shows shifting stratospheric temperatures obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft between 2005 (left) to 2008 (right). The difference between the temperatures is shown in the middle, with...

This graphic shows NASA's Science Mission Directorate spacecraft fleet.

During its final targeted flyby of Titan on April 22, 2017, Cassini's radar mapper got the mission’s last close look at the moon's surface.

This still is from a short computer-animated film that highlights Cassini's accomplishments and Saturn and reveals the science-packed final orbits between April and September 2017.

Jean Dominique Cassini (1625-1712) discovered Saturn's moons Iapetus, Rhea, Tethys, and Dione. In 1675, Cassini discovered that Saturn's rings are separated into two parts by a gap. The gap is no...

Happy St. Patrick's Day from the Cassini Solstice mission. Credit: NASA/JPL

+ Brightening Adiri -- Unannotated Images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft show changes caused by methane rain in the bright Adiri region near the equator of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Altho...

+ Higher Res This graphic shows highlights of the tour of NASA's Cassini spacecraft around the Saturn system. It was created by David Seal of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Credit: NASA/JP...

Happy Holidays from the Planetary Science Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

+ Unannotated Version NASA’s Cassini spacecraft obtained this image of a feature shaped like a hot cross bun in the northern region of Titan (left) that bears a striking resemblance to a similar...

The release of the Huygens probe on Dec. 25, 2004 set the festive tone of holiday seasons for the duration of the misison.

Eight of Cassini's science instruments are planned to be turned on during the final plunge.

This map of the surface of Saturn's moon Mimas illustrates the regions that were imaged by Cassini during the spacecraft's flyby of the moon on Aug. 2, 2005. At closest approach, the spacecraft pas...

The Cassini spacecraft has logged some impressive numbers in the 12 years since it arrived at Saturn on July 1, 2004. This infographic offers a snapshot of just a few of the mission's big numbers a...

Artist’s version of a star chart, complete with arrows to help locate Saturn. Credit: NASA/JPL

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.

Artist's rendition of the Pioneer 10 spacecraft at Jupiter.