Cassini

Cassini, 1997 to 2017: launched to Saturn, thirteen years in orbit, then flown into the planet on purpose. Saturn in eclipse, the ice jets of Enceladus, and Titan behind the rings.

9 photographs · 1997 to 2013 · Mission 8 of 14
9 photographs
The Cassini spacecraft on the launch pad, Cassini, 21 September 1997
Cassini · 21 September 1997KSC-11415F06

Cassini on the Launch Pad

A few weeks before launch, the spacecraft bound for Saturn still stood uncovered on top of its rocket.
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Saturn in eclipse with Earth as a blue point, Cassini, 19 July 2013
Cassini · 19 July 2013PIA17172

Saturn in Eclipse

Cassini sat in Saturn's shadow for four hours. Earth is the blue point out to the right of the rings.
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Ice jets erupting from the south pole of Enceladus, Cassini, 21 November 2009
Cassini · 21 November 2009PIA11688

The Ocean Getting Out

More than thirty separate jets. Twenty of them had never been identified before this photograph.
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Earth and the Moon below Saturn's rings, from Cassini, Cassini, 19 July 2013
Cassini · 19 July 2013PIA17171

Earth Below the Rings

Earth is the pale point below the rings. The Moon is a fainter bump beside it.
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Long exposure of a Titan IVB launch over water, Cassini, 15 October 1997
Cassini · 15 October 1997PIA00748

The Ship That Stayed

The boat in the foreground was built to pull spent rockets back out of the sea.
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Titan passing in front of Saturn, Cassini, 6 May 2012
Cassini · 6 May 2012PIA14922

Saturn Losing Its Blue

When Cassini arrived in 2004 the northern half of the planet was azure. This is that blue on its way out.
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Jupiter with its moon Io in front, Cassini, 1 January 2001
Cassini · 1 January 2001PIA02879

New Year at Jupiter

Io looks as though it is resting on the cloud tops. It is 350,000 kilometres in front of them.
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Saturn's moon Tethys with the crater Penelope, Cassini, 14 October 2009
Cassini · 14 October 2009PIA11624

Lighter Than Water

Tethys is almost pure ice. Given an ocean big enough to hold it, the moon would float.
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Titan crossed by Saturn's rings seen edge on, Cassini, 16 May 2012
Cassini · 16 May 2012PIA14923

A Line Across Titan

Turned almost edge on, the whole ring system narrows to a pair of bright threads.
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Cassini, 1997 to 2017: launched to Saturn, thirteen years in orbit, then flown into the planet on purpose. Saturn in eclipse, the ice jets of Enceladus, and Titan behind the rings.

9 photographs · 1997 to 2013 · Mission 8 of 14
About Cassini

Cassini left Cape Canaveral on 15 October 1997, passed Jupiter at the end of 2000 and reached Saturn in 2004. It carried the European Huygens probe, which landed on Titan in January 2005. These prints include Saturn backlit in eclipse with Earth as a blue point beside the rings, the jets of Enceladus, the ice moon Tethys, and the day in July 2013 when people on Earth were asked to wave at the camera. The mission ended on 15 September 2017, when Cassini was sent into Saturn so that it could never touch the moons it had studied.