The Closest that You'll Likely Get to Saturn's Moons

This artist Artist conception of a mirror-smooth lake on the surface of the smoggy moon Titan.

A Closer Look at Daphnis

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured the closest images of Saturn's moon Daphnis to date. Daphnis can be seen orbiting in a rift known as the Keeler Gap in one of Saturn's rings.

Lightning Flashing on Saturn

NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured lightning flashes on Saturn. These three images were taken from the Cassini spacecraft at a distance of approximately 1.3 million miles) from Saturn.

First Lightning Flashes on Saturn

NASA's Voyager mission and Cassini had previously captured radio emissions from storms on Saturn. But they were previously unable to get pictures of lightning flashing because the planet is very bright and reflective.

Mimas Three-Quarter Portrait

Saturn's moon Mimas and its large Herschel Crater are profiled in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Herschel Crater in 3-D

A three-dimensional view of the large Herschel Crater on Saturn's moon Mimas captured during the NASA's Cassini spacecraft's closest-ever flyby of this moon.

Streaked Craters in False-Color

Terrain-dependent color differences and dark streaks run down the sides of some of the craters on the region of the moon that leads in its orbit around Saturn.

Streaks and Markings on Mimas

Relatively dark regions below bright crater walls and streaks on some of the walls are seen in this mosaic of Saturn's moon Mimas.

Bizarre Temperatures on Mimas

Unexpected patterns of daytime temperatures found on Saturn's small inner moon Mimas. Here's how NASA describes it: The upper left image shows the expected distribution of temperatures. The white sun symbol shows the point where the sun is directly overhead, which is at midday close to the equator. The upper right image shows the completely different pattern that Cassini actually saw. Instead of the expected smoothly varying temperatures, this side of Mimas is divided into a warm part (on the left) and a cold part (on the right) with a sharp, v-shaped boundary between them. The warm part has typical temperatures near 92 Kelvin (minus 294 Fahrenheit), while typical temperatures on the cold part are about 77 Kelvin (minus 320 Fahrenheit). The lower two panels in the annotated version compare the temperature map to Mimas' appearance in ordinary visible light at the time of the observations.