SATURN

71 light-minutes

The glorious ring system around Saturn glows with scattered sunlight in this image made by the Cassini spacecraft as it passed behind the planet in 2006. To Galileo with his early telescope, Saturn appeared to have two large moons, looking like 'ears'. The rings are clearly visible through modern backyard telescopes. This image also contains our home planet - the white dot at the ten o'clock position between the bright main rings and the thinner grey-brown ring.

Credit: Image made in infrared, visible and ultraviolet light by the Cassini imaging team at NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute.

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