Pictures of Saturn

Saturn is easily the most beautiful planet in the Solar System. To celebrate this natural wonder, lets look at some beautiful pics of Saturn.

But if you want to see Saturn by yourself, you can check out these cool telescopes that will help you see the beauty of planet Saturn.


Let’s start with one of the most beautiful photos of Saturn ever taken. This image of Saturn was taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft when it was behind Saturn. In other words, the Sun is completely obscured by Saturn, and illuminating it from behind. The tiny speck in the upper, left-hand side of Saturn’s rings is our own home planet Earth.


This is a picture of Saturn taken by the ground-based Keck telescope, located atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. It’s one of the most powerful telescopes on Earth. The Saturn photo was taken in infrared, and shows the strange hot spot located at Saturn’s south pole.


It’s not the best picture, but you’re looking at one of the first ever images of Saturn captured up close by NASA’s Pioneer 11. During its mission, Pioneer 11 passed just 20,000 km above the cloud tops of Saturn, and captured the first close-up images of Saturn.


This is an example of a beautiful picture of Saturn taken by NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1980. As you can see, the quality has improved significantly over the image captured by Pioneer 11. Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 made quick flybys of Saturn and then sped off into space. When Voyager 1 completed its flyby of Saturn, it sped off into the depths of space, while Voyager 2 went on to visit Uranus and Neptune as part of its Grand Tour of the Solar System.


Here’s another image of Saturn captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. This photograph was taken in May 2004, when Cassini had almost arrived at Saturn. The spacecraft spent another 4 years orbiting Saturn as part of its primary mission, and at the time of this writing, it’s still going strong.

We have written many articles about Saturn for Universe Today. Here are some facts about Saturn.

Fraser Cain

Fraser Cain is the publisher of Universe Today. He's also the co-host of Astronomy Cast with Dr. Pamela Gay. Here's a link to my Mastodon account.

Recent Posts

Enceladus’s Fault Lines are Responsible for its Plumes

The Search for Life in our Solar System leads seekers to strange places. From our…

12 hours ago

Lunar Explorers Could Run to Create Artificial Gravity for Themselves

Few things in life are certain. But it seems highly probable that people will explore…

14 hours ago

This is an Actual Picture of Space Debris

Space debris is a growing problem, so companies are working on ways to mitigate it.…

14 hours ago

Insanely Detailed Webb Image of the Horsehead Nebula

Few space images are as iconic as those of the Horsehead Nebula. Its shape makes…

2 days ago

Binary Stars Form in the Same Nebula But Aren’t Identical. Now We Know Why.

It stands to reason that stars formed from the same cloud of material will have…

2 days ago

Earth Had a Magnetosphere 3.7 Billion Years Ago

We go about our daily lives sheltered under an invisible magnetic field generated deep inside…

2 days ago