PIA07806 Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

The slim crescent of the moon Rhea glides silently onto the featureless, golden face of Saturn.

This view looks down onto the unlit side of Saturn's rings, which cast soft, linear shadows onto the planet's northern hemisphere.

The images were acquired by the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on March 21, 2006, at a distance of approximately 221,000 kilometers from Rhea. The image scale is approximately 13 kilometers per pixel.

PIA07744 Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Speeding toward pale, icy Dione, Cassini's view is enriched by the tranquil gold and blue hues of Saturn in the distance.

The horizontal stripes near the bottom of the image are Saturn's rings. The spacecraft was nearly in the plane of the rings when the images were taken, thinning them by perspective and masking their awesome scale. The thin, curving shadows of the C ring and part of the B ring adorn the northern latitudes visible here, a reminder of the rings' grandeur.

It is notable that Dione, like most of the other icy Saturnian satellites, looks no different in natural color than in monochrome images.

Images taken on Oct. 11, 2005, with blue, green and infrared (centered at 752 nanometers) spectral filters were used to create this color view, which approximates the scene as it would appear to the human eye. The images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of approximately 39,000 kilometers (24,200 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 22 degrees. The image scale is about 2 kilometers per pixel.

PIA06142 Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

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 arc gracefully across the planet, fading into darkness on Saturn's night side.

The part of the atmosphere seen here appears darker and more bluish than the warm brown and gold hues seen in Cassini images of the southern hemisphere, due to preferential scattering of blue wavelengths by the cloud-free upper atmosphere.

The bright blue swath near Mimas (398 kilometers across) is created by sunlight passing through the Cassini division (4,800 kilometers wide). The rightmost part of this distinctive feature is slightly overexposed and therefore bright white in this image. Shadows of several thin ringlets within the division can be seen here as well. The dark band that stretches across the center of the image is the shadow of Saturn's B ring, the densest of the main rings. Part of the actual Cassini division appears at the bottom, along with the A ring and the narrow, outer F ring. The A ring is transparent enough that, from this viewing angle, the atmosphere and threadlike shadows cast by the inner C ring are visible through it.

Images taken with red, green and blue filters were combined to create this color view. The images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Nov. 7, 2004, at a distance of 3.7 million kilometers from Saturn. The image scale is 22 kilometers per pixel.

PIA07771 Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Cool and icy Dione floats in front of giant Saturn bedecked in a dazzling array of colors.

The surface of Dione, which exhibits contrasting bright and dark areas when viewed up close, appears pale in this image. It is Saturn's multi-hued cloud bands that boldly steal the show. Discrete clouds and eddies in Saturn's northern hemisphere can be seen within the faint shadows of the rings on the planet. Dione is 1,118 kilometers (695 miles) across.

Cassini is in a phase of its mission in which its orbit will be nearly equatorial for some time. This view was obtained from about one-third of a degree out of the ring plane.

Images taken with red, green and blue filters were used to create this natural-color view. The images were obtained with the wide-angle camera on Sept. 22, 2005, from a distance of approximately 803,000 kilometers (499,000 miles) from Dione and at a sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of about 43 degrees. The image scale is about 48 kilometers (30 miles) per pixel.

PIA07740 Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

This stunning false-color view of Saturn's moon Hyperion reveals crisp details across the strange, tumbling moon's surface.

Differences in color could represent differences in the composition of surface materials. The view was obtained during Cassini's close flyby on Sept. 26, 2005.

Hyperion has a notably reddish tint when viewed in natural color. The red color was toned down in this false-color view, and the other hues were enhanced, in order to make more subtle color variations across Hyperion's surface more apparent.

Cassini scientists think that Hyperion’s unusual appearance can be attributed to the fact that it has an unusually low density for such a large object, giving it weak surface gravity and high porosity. These characteristics help preserve the original shapes of Hyperion’s craters by limiting the amount of impact ejecta coating the moon’s surface. Impactors tend to make craters by compressing the surface material, rather than blasting it out. Further, Hyperion’s weak gravity, and correspondingly low escape velocity, means that what little ejecta is produced has a good chance of escaping the moon altogether.

Images taken using infrared, green and ultraviolet spectral filters were combined to create this view. The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft's narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 62,000 kilometers from Hyperion and at a Sun-Hyperion-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 52 degrees. The image scale is 362 meters per pixel.

PIA08366 Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI/Eric Hartwell. Special thanks to Gordan Ugarkovic for identifying Janus and its shadow.

A serene orb of ice is set against the gentle pastel clouds of giant Saturn. Rhea transits the face of the gas giant, whose darkened rings and their planet-hugging shadows appear near upper right.

Rhea is the second largest of Saturn's moons at 1,528 kilometers across. Tiny Janus(181 kilometers across) is visible as a faint speck just below the rings at bottom left, it shadow visible against the blue northern hemisphere at top center. This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 3 degrees above the ring plane.

Downloaded images of two quadrants taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were composited to create this hemispheric version of the image released as PIA08366.

The view was acquired with the wide-angle camera on Feb. 4, 2007. Cassini acquired the view at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers from Saturn and 679,000 kilometers from Rhea. Image scale is 68 kilometers per pixel on Saturn and about 40 kilometers per pixel on Rhea.

PIA07628 Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI/Eric Hartwell

This grouping of Dione, Tethys and Pandora near the rings provides a sampling of the diversity of worlds that exists in Saturn's realm. A 330-kilometer-wide impact basin can be seen near the bottom right on Dione (at left). The icy cliffs of Ithaca Chasma can be seen on Tethys (middle, on the far side of the rings). Little Pandora makes a good showing here as well, displaying a hint of surface detail.

Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were composited with clear-filter views to create this true-color version of the monochrome image released as PIA07628.

PIA07628 original caption: This excellent grouping of three moons -- Dione, Tethys and Pandora -- near the rings provides a sampling of the diversity of worlds that exists in Saturn's realm.

A 330-kilometer-wide impact basin can be seen near the bottom right on Dione (at left). Ithaca Chasma and the region imaged during the Cassini spacecraft's Sept. 24, 2005, flyby can be seen on Tethys (middle). Little Pandora makes a good showing here as well, displaying a hint of surface detail. Tethys is on the far side of the rings in this view; Dione and Pandora are much nearer to the Cassini spacecraft. Dione is 1,126 kilometers across. Tethys is 1,071 kilometers across and Pandora is 84 kilometers across.

This image was taken in visible blue light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 22, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers from Saturn. The image scale is about 5 kilometers per pixel on Dione and Pandora and 9 kilometers per pixel on Tethys.

PIA08329 Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

With giant Saturn hanging in the blackness and sheltering Cassini from the sun's blinding glare, the spacecraft viewed the rings as never before, revealing previously unknown faint rings and even glimpsing its home world.

This marvelous panoramic view was created by combining a total of 165 images taken by the Cassini wide-angle camera over nearly three hours on Sept. 15, 2006. The full mosaic consists of three rows of nine wide-angle camera footprints; only a portion of the full mosaic is shown here. Color in the view was created by digitally compositing ultraviolet, infrared and clear filter images and was then adjusted to resemble natural color.

Interior to the G ring and above the brighter main rings is the pale dot of Earth. Cassini views its point of origin from over a billion kilometers (and close to a billion miles) away in the icy depths of the outer solar system. See PIA08324 for a similar view of Earth taken during this observation.

In this version of the mosaic the color contrast is greatly exaggerated. In such views, imaging scientists have noticed color variations across the diffuse rings that imply active processes sort the particles in the ring according to their sizes. Looking at the E ring in this color-exaggerated view, the distribution of color across and along the ring appears to be different between the right side and the left. Scientists are not sure yet how to explain these differences, though the difference in phase angle between right and left may be part of the explanation. The phase angle is about 179 degrees on Saturn. The main rings are overexposed in a few places.

The mosaic images were acquired as the spacecraft drifted in the darkness of Saturn's shadow for about 12 hours, allowing a multitude of unique observations of the microscopic particles that compose Saturn's faint rings. Ring structures containing these tiny particles brighten substantially at high phase angles: i.e., viewing angles where the sun is almost directly behind the objects being imaged.

During this period of observation Cassini detected two new faint rings: one coincident with the shared orbit of the moons Janus and Epimetheus, and another coincident with Pallene's orbit. (See PIA08322 and PIA08328 for more on the two new rings.) The narrowly confined G ring is easily seen here, outside the bright main rings. Encircling the entire system is the much more extended E ring. The icy plumes of Enceladus, whose eruptions supply the E ring particles, betray the moon's position in the E ring's left-side edge.

This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 15 degrees above the ringplane. Cassini was approximately 2.2 million kilometers from Saturn when the images in this mosaic were taken. Image scale on Saturn is about 260 kilometers per pixel.

PIA07772 Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Few sights in the solar system are more strikingly beautiful than softly hued Saturn embraced by the shadows of its stately rings.

The gas planet's subtle northward gradation from gold to azure is a striking visual effect that scientists don't fully understand. Current thinking says that it may be related to seasonal influences, tied to the cold temperatures in the northern (winter) hemisphere. Despite Cassini's revelations, Saturn remains a world of mystery.

Currently, the rings' shadows shield the mid-northern latitudes from the harshest of the sun's rays. As Saturn travels around the sun in its 29-year orbit, the shadows will narrow and head southward, eventually blanketing the opposite hemisphere.

Images taken with blue, green and red spectral filters were used to create this color view, which approximates the scene as it would appear to the human eye. The view was brightened to enhance detail visible in the rings and within their shadows.

The images were obtained with the Cassini wide-angle camera from a distance of approximately 999,000 kilometers from Saturn on May 4, 2005, as the spacecraft cruised a few degrees above the ring plane. The image scale is about 60 kilometers per pixel on Saturn.

PIA08391 Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Cassini delivers this stunning vista showing small, battered Epimetheus and smog-enshrouded Titan, with Saturn's A and F rings stretching across the scene. Epimetheus is 116 kilometers across and giant Titan is 5,150 kilometers across.

The prominent dark region visible in the A ring is the Encke gap (325 kilometers wide), in which the moon Pan (26 kilometers across) and several narrow ringlets reside. Moon-driven features which score the A ring can easily be seen to the left and right of the Encke gap. A couple of bright clumps can be seen in the F ring.

The color information in the colorized view is completely artificial: it is derived from red, green and blue images taken at nearly the same time and phase angle as the clear filter image. This color information was overlaid onto the previously released clear filter view (see PIA07786) in order to approximate the scene as it might appear to human eyes.

The view was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 28, 2006, at a distance of approximately 667,000 kilometers from Epimetheus and 1.8 million kilometers from Titan. The image captures the illuminated side of the rings. The image scale is 4 kilometers per pixel on Epimetheus and 11 kilometers per pixel on Titan.

PIA09788 Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

As seen from the side not illuminated by the Sun, Saturn's thinner rings are highlighted in shades of brown and gold, contrasting with the more neutral appearance of the icy moon Tethys. The A ring and Cassini Division are separated by the optically thick B ring, which does not permit sunlight to penetrate and appears as the broad, dark lane between them in this view.

This view looks toward the anti-Saturn side of Tethys (1,071 kilometers across). North is up and rotated 35 degrees to the right.

The view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 2 degrees above the ringplane.

Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The view was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on October 29, 2007, at a distance of approximately 2.1 million kilometers from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 21 degrees. Image scale is 12 kilometers per pixel.

PIA11112 Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

This sweeping mosaic of Saturn's moon Enceladus provides broad regional context for the ultra-sharp, close-up views NASA's Cassini spacecraft acquired minutes earlier, during its flyby on Aug. 11, 2008. See PIA11114 and PIA11113 for the higher resolution views.

This false-color mosaic combines Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) narrow-angle camera images obtained through ultraviolet, green, and near-infrared camera filters. Areas that are greenish in appearance are believed to represent deposits of coarser grained ice and solid boulders that are too small to be seen at this scale, but which are visible in the higher resolution views, while whitish deposits represent finer grained ice. The mosaic shows that coarse-grained and solid ice are concentrated along valley floors and walls, as well as along the upraised flanks of the "tiger stripe" fractures, which may be covered with plume fallout that landed not far from the sources. Elsewhere on Enceladus, this coarse water ice is concentrated within outcrops along cliff faces and at the top of ridges. The sinuous boundary of scarps and ridges that encircles the south polar terrain at about 55 degrees south latitude is conspicuous. Much of the coarse-grained or solid ice along this boundary may be blocky rubble that has crumbled off of cliff faces as a result of ongoing seismic activity. This mosaic complements the imaging coverage acquired during Cassini's July 2005 flyby of Enceladus by showing portions of the moon's south polar region and tiger stripes, or sulci, that were in darkness during that flyby (PIA06247).

The reversed lighting conditions over the polar region (compared to the July 2005 images) highlight features, such as fractures and ridges, that are barely visible in the July 2005 views, and vice versa. The four most prominent sulci (bottom, from right to left: Damascus, Baghdad, Alexandria and Cairo) appear as generally horizontal fractures near lower right, and they extend into the moon's night side. The mosaic is an orthographic projection centered at 63.0 degrees south latitude, 281.3 degrees west longitude, and has an image scale of 60 meters per pixel. The original images ranged in resolution from 28 to 154 meters per pixel and were taken at distances ranging from 5,064 to 25,949 kilometers from Enceladus.