Holiday Lights: New Views of Saturn and its Moons

December 23,2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

The globe of Saturn, seen here in natural color, is reminiscent of a holiday ornament in this wide-angle view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

PASADENA, Calif. -- A NASA spacecraft has sent holiday greetings from the outer solar space.
The space agency on Monday released dazzling new images of the ringed planet Saturn and its moons. The Cassini spacecraft took the pictures earlier this year.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

The southern hemisphere of Saturn.

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Saturn resembled an ornament in one image, with a jet stream swirling at its north pole along with a hurricane-like storm.
Cassini also peered through the hazy atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, revealing hydrocarbon lakes. The icy Saturn moon Enceladus appears as a white snowball.
Cassini, funded by NASA and the European and Italian space agencies, was launched in 1997. The spacecraft reached Saturn in 2004 and has been studying the planet and its many moons.
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NASA astronaut Don Pettit captured stunning star trails using a long-exposure technique while on the International Space Station in 2012. (NASA/Don Pettit)