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Saturn Mosaic
Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
A total of 126 images taken over the course of two hours make up this mosaic picture of Saturn. The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft snapped the photos on October 6, 2004, when it was approximately 3.9 million miles (6.3 million kilometers) from Saturn. Cassini was on a four-year mission to explore the ringed planet.
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Saturn and Moons
Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Two of Saturn's 48 known moons are barely visible in this picture of the ringed planet. Mimas, at the upper right, has an enormous impact crater on one side, and Tethys, at the bottom, has a huge rift zone called Ithaca Chasma that runs nearly three-quarters of the way around the moon.
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Saturn Cloud System
Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Lit from below by Saturn's internal thermal glow, clearings in the planet's cloud system appear as white pearls. The regularity of the clearings suggests that they may be a manifestation of a large planetary wave.
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Saturn's Rings
Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Saturn's otherworldly rings encircle the planet and extend out for hundreds of thousands of kilometers. The rings—there are thousands—are made up of billions of ice and rock particles, thought to be pieces of comets, asteroids, or shattered moons.
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Saturn's North Pole
Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
A six-sided feature encircles Saturn's north pole in this 2006 image. The hexagon was first observed in the early 1980s, proving that the feature—whatever it is—is long lived. This photo was taken using Saturn's thermal glow, hence the red hue.
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Saturn's Glow
Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Saturn's rings appear blue in this false-color image taken from Cassini. The planet's northern hemisphere is about twice as bright as its southern hemisphere, because high-level, fine particles are about half as prevalent in the northern hemisphere as in the south. These particles block Saturn's glow more strongly, making it look brighter in the north.
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Saturn Rings, Northern Latitudes
Photograph by NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
The Cassini spacecraft surveys Saturn's outstretched ring system in infrared from a vantage point high above the planet's northern latitudes. Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings, but Saturn's are by far the largest and most spectacular.
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Saturn Clouds
Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Clouds swirl on Saturn, the second largest planet in our solar system. Like its bigger neighbor Jupiter, Saturn is a gas planet made mostly of hydrogen and helium. Its magnetic field is 578 times more powerful than Earth's.
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Saturn's Northern Hemisphere
Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Saturn's northern hemisphere appears blue in this natural-color photograph taken by Cassini in December 2004. During its four-year tour of Saturn, Cassini will complete 74 orbits of the ringed planet and 44 close flybys of the moon Titan.
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Saturn Moon Mimas
Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
On moon Mimas, the enormous Herschel Crater spans 80 miles (130 kilometers)—one-third of the moon's entire surface. The peak in the middle of the crater is about as tall as Mount Everest. The impact that made this crater likely almost destroyed Mimas.
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Titan Halo
Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
A halo surrounds Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Titan's atmosphere, almost entirely nitrogen, extends some 370 miles (600 kilometers) into space—ten times as far as Earth's atmosphere.
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