NASA recently published a stunning image of Saturn, the ringed giant planet. The image was acquired by the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft. In the image, Saturn (approximately 120,000 km across) casts its extensive shadow on its magnificent rings. Saturn is faintly illuminated by sunlight reflected by the rings.

The Cassini spacecraft was looking on the southern, dark side of the rings, from about 10 degrees below the plane of the rings. The image was taken in blue light, with Cassini’s wide-angle camera, on 2 January 2010. The spacecraft was at a distance of approximately 2.3 million km from Saturn. Saturn is currently about 1.3 billion km from Earth.

Cassini was launched into space on 15 October 1997, and the spacecraft was inserted into orbit around Saturn, on 1 July 2004, to become the first artificial satellite of Saturn. It has obtained thousands of fascinating images of Saturn and its moons, and conducted numerous startling discoveries, yielding new insights into the spectacular Saturn system. Cassini’s mission of exploring Saturn is scheduled to last till 2017.