Inspiration

+ View unannotated version The vast hydrocarbon seas and lakes (dark shapes) near the north pole of Saturn's moon Titan sprawl out beneath the watchful eye of NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Scientis...

This artist's rendering shows a regional cross-section of the ice shell underlying Enceladus' south polar terrain, illustrating our current knowledge of the physical and thermal structure and proce...

This movie sequence of images is from the last dedicated observation of the Enceladus plume by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

This animated movie shows the simulated solar wind velocity from March 21 to May 10, 2013. 

This is a computer-rendered image of Cassini during the Saturn Orbit Insertion (SOI) maneuver, just after the main engine has begun firing. The spacecraft is moving out of the plane of the page and...

Analysis of periodicities in Saturn kilometric radiation reveals two periods as indicated in this display. The kilometric radio emissions coming from the Northern hemisphere have a period near 10.6...

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.

+ Non-annotated version This false-color view of Saturn's moon Mimas from NASA's Cassini spacecraft accentuates terrain-dependent color differences and shows dark streaks running down the sides ...

Diagram of the Cassini spacecraft and Huygens probe.

This graphic represents a possible model for mechanisms that could generate the water vapor and tiny ice particles detected by Cassini over the southern polar terrain on Enceladus. This model shows...

The number of water particles in Enceladus' plume peaked over the area highlighted by the circle in this image of Enceladus, which is overlain by data from Cassini's Ion and Neutral Mass Spectromet...

This graphic plots the source locations of the geysers scientists have located on Enceladus' south polar terrain. 

This graphic shows the trajectory for the Cassini spacecraft during its flyby of the icy moon Enceladus on Oct. 9, 2008. At closet approach Cassini will be 25 kilometers (16 miles) from the surface...

From infrared images that show variations in brightness and texture, a geological map of the circular feature, thought to be a volcano, has been obtained using Cassini's visual and infrared mapping...

+ Unannotated Version The northern and southern hemispheres of Enceladus are seen in these polar stereographic maps, mosaicked from the best-available Cassini clear-filter images. Each map is...

As depicted in this illustration, Cassini will plunge into Saturn’s atmosphere on Sept. 15, 2017.

A colorful infographic detailing comet ISON's perilous trip to the sun.

This is an artist's concept of Saturn's rings and major icy moons. Saturn's rings make up an enormous, complex structure. From edge-to-edge, the ring system would not even fit in the distance be...

+ Unannotated Version The northern and southern hemispheres of Enceladus are seen in these polar stereographic maps, mosaicked from the best-available Cassini clear-filter images. Each map is...

Artist's concept of Voyager 2 with nine facts listed around it. 

Bright clumps of ring material and a fan-like structure appear near the core of Saturn's tenuous F ring in this mosaic of images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Such features suggest the existence ...

A poster-style artist's view of Cassini's Grand Finale orbits.  

On July 19, 2013, in an event celebrated the world over, NASA's Cassini spacecraft slipped into Saturn's shadow and turned to image the planet, seven of its moons, its inner rings -- and, in the ba...

+ 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...

This graphic shows Cassini's final descent toward Saturn beginning with a distant encounter with Titan.