The Greatest Saturn Portrait ...Yet

A CLOSER LOOK

While cruising around Saturn in early October 2004, Cassini captured a series of images that have been composed into the largest, most detailed, global natural color view of Saturn and its rings ever made. This grand mosaic consists of 126 images acquired in a tile-like fashion, covering one end of Saturn's rings to the other and the entire planet in between. The images were taken over the course of two hours on Oct. 6, 2004, while Cassini was approximately 6.3 million kilometers (3.9 million miles) from Saturn. Since the view seen by Cassini during this time changed very little, no re-projection or alteration of any of the images was necessary. Three images (red, green and blue) were taken of each of 42 locations, or "footprints," across the planet. The full color footprints were put toge

Explore NASA's original image record for credits and available downloads.