Inspiration

An artist's impression of the Huygens probe on the surface of Titan.

This artist's concept shows a glowing patch of ultraviolet light near Saturn's north pole that occurs at the "footprint" of the magnetic connection between Saturn and its moon Enceladus. The footpr...

Artist's concept of the final orbits of the Cassini spacraft at Saturn.

The Mariner Mark II spacecraft that was designed to handle both the CRAF, Comet Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby mission, and the Cassini mission.

Dive between Saturn and its rings with NASA's Cassini spacecraft in the final chapter of its mission.

This graphic shows the trajectory for the Cassini spacecraft during its flyby of the icy moon Enceladus on Oct. 31, 2008. At closet approach Cassini will be 197 kilometers (122.3 miles) from the su...

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.

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...

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

The lower panel is a mass spectrum that shows the chemical constituents sampled in Enceladus' plume by Cassini's Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer during its fly-through of the plume on Mar. 12, 20...

Animated view of the last seven years of Cassini orbits.

MOPITT's monthly average of global concentrations of tropospheric carbon monoxide at an altitude of about 12,000 feet, in April 2000 (left) and April 2014.

This graphic shows the average temperatures of various destinations in our solar system. (Planets not to scale)

An artist's concept of the Cassini spacecraft crossing Saturn's ring plane during one of the mission's final orbit.

In the spirit of the Halloween season, the Cassini team has put together The Eerie Sounds of Saturn.   + More information on Saturn's Radio Emissions   + More featured "Sounds of Saturn"

This diagram created by Cassini's mission planning team shows how navigators use Titan flybys to shape Cassini's orbits.

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 whimsical travel poster imagines a future regatta where explorers recreate Voyager 1 and 2's historic Grand Tour of the outer solar system.

Cassini's path into Saturn's upper atmosphere, with tick marks every 10 seconds. 

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

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...

Dawn's launch vehicle is a variant of the Delta II known as a Delta 2925H.

Diagram of the Cassini spacecraft and Huygens probe.

The plot shows the type of data the magnetometer measures. These data were taken during Saturn orbit insertion. Cassini is measuring the three components of the magnetic field (the strength of t...

Saturn reaches opposition -- the closest it comes to Earth -- on Jan. 27, 2006. On this date, golden Saturn rises in the east just as the sun sets in the west. It will be visible all night long. A...