A New Beginning
Bands and swirls of clouds highlight Saturn's northern hemisphere in this image from the Cassini spacecraft. Cassini, which arrived at Saturn in 2004, concluded its primary mission on June 30, and is embarking on a two-year extended mission. The extra time will allow it to map more of the moon Titan, which has a thick atmosphere rich in organic compounds, and fly through plumes of water jetting from the south pole of the moon Enceladus. The dark bands at the bottom of this image are the shadows of Saturn's rings, while the small black dot near the top of the planet is the shadow of the moon Mimas. [NASA/JPL/SSI]
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