Two tiny moons of Saturn, almost lost amid the planet’s enormous rings, are seen orbiting in this Cassini probe image. Pan, visible within the Encke Gap near lower-right, is in the process of overtaking the slower Atlas, visible at upper-left.
In this image from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, Saturn’s moon Dione reveals its past via contrasts. The features visible here are a mixture of tectonics — the bright, linear features — and impact cratering — the round features, which are spread across the entire surface.
In this image from NASA’s Cassini probe, Saturn’s A and F rings appear bizarrely warped where they intersect the planet’s limb, whose atmosphere acts here like a very big lens.
Numerous stars provide a serene background in this view of Saturn’s moon Enceladus captured by the Cassini spacecraft while the moon was in eclipse, within the ringed planet’s shadow.
Researchers have revealed the pH of water spewing from geyser-like plumes on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Their findings are an important step toward determining whether life could exist, or could have previously existed, on the sixth planet’s sixth-largest moon.