Cassini Flies By Earth

Swirling clouds drift like phantoms in Saturn's murky depths. The camera filter used for this image captures light at wavelengths where atmospheric gases like methane are fairly transparent, allow...

Saturn poses with Tethys in this Cassini view. The C ring casts thin, string-like shadows on the northern hemisphere. Above that lurks the shadow of the much denser B ring. Cloud bands in the atmo...

These two images, taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, show Jupiter in a near-infrared wavelength, and catch Europa, one of Jupiter's largest moons, at different phases. Cassini's narrow-angl...

Two moons, Rhea and Dione, join the planet and its rings in this view from the Cassini spacecraft. Rhea and Dione are respectively the second and fourth largest moons of Saturn, but they seem tiny ...

This colorized movie from NASA's Cassini mission shows a polar projection of the curious six-sided jet stream at Saturn's north pole known as "the hexagon" in the infrared.

Titan Close-up July 3, 2004 Full-Res: PIA06112 Shown here is a blowup of a region of Titan imaged on July 2, 2004. This image wa...

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, with a resolution of 450 feet (140 meters) per pixe...

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been on an epic road trip, as this graphic of its orbits around the Saturn system shows. This picture traces Cassini's orbits from Saturn orbit insertion, on June 30, ...

The Cassini spacecraft continued to track Saturn's moon Prometheus after it disappeared behind the planet, capturing a few fortunate, high-resolution views of the clouds in Saturn's high north. Tr...

Saturn's moon Daphnis casts a short shadow on the A ring in this image taken about six months after the planet's August 2009 equinox. Daphnis (8 kilometers, or 5 miles across) appears as a tiny br...

Dark Storms, Bright Clouds September 8, 2004 Full-Res: PIA06472 Flecks of bright cloud and several dark storms dominate Saturn's sout...

It is no Great Red Spot, but these two side-by-side views show the longest-lived electrical storm yet observed on Saturn by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft using three different filters reveal cloud structures and movements at different depths in the atmosphere around Jupiter's south pole.

This November 2008 Cassini snapshot showcases a classic view of the triangular shape typical of many of the spokes in Saturn's outer B ring. Small particles in the ring compose the spokes and thes...

The Cassini spacecraft peers at the smooth globe of Titan, wrapped in its photochemical haze. The moon's thin, detached, high-altitude haze layer is best viewed at shorter wavelengths of light, as...

This image shows Sekhet Crater, at right, in a shadowy scene from Ceres. Sekhet is 25 miles wide (41 kilometers wide). NASA's Dawn spacecraft took this image on June 15, 2016. A smooth plain surrou...

The finest details on the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus are revealed in this 30-meter (100-foot) per-pixel, enhanced-color image taken during Cassini's closest-ever encounter with Enceladus on...

This enhanced-color image of the northern hemisphere of Saturn taken by Voyager 1 on November 5, 1980 at a range of 9 million kilometers (5.5 million miles) shows a variety of features in Saturn's ...

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.

The Cassini spacecraft and Huygens probe begin their seven-year journey to the r inged planet. The successful launch of Cassini aboard a Titan IVB/Centaur occured at 4:43 a.m. EDT , Oct. 15, 1997. ...

This image from NASA's Juno spacecraft captures a high-altitude cloud formation surrounded by swirling patterns in the atmosphere of Jupiter's North North Temperate Belt region.

The narrow and twisted F ring lights up this scene, which features Mimas against the unlit side of Saturn's ringplane. The F ring contains a great deal of fine, icy particles that are quite effecti...

From now through mid-2006, it's Saturn time again. The planet Saturn returns to our early evening sky this month to the delight of stargazers everywhere. Saturn, the Jewel of the Solar System, rise...

This view, taken on Oct. 21, 2016, from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows Megwomets Crater on Ceres. Megwomets is the largest crater in this image, at right of center.

This image shows a rare and powerful storm on the night side of Saturn. Light from Saturn's rings (called "ringshine") provided the illumination, allowing the storm and other cloud features to be ...