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Saturn A collection of pictures of the planet Saturn taken by the Cassini spacecraft

The gas giant Saturn is the second largest planet in our solar system and best known for its ring system. After the flybys of Pioneer 11 in 1973, Voyager 1 in 1980 and Voyager 2 in 1981, the Cassini–Huygens probe was inserted into Saturn's orbit on July 1, 2004. Cassini orbited the planet for 13 years and delivered thousands of pictures. Here are our favorites. Like our other space galleries, the pictures have not been selected because of their scientific significance but because of their esthetic value and sometimes because of their historical importance. Titan and Saturn, May 6, 2012, from 778,000 km (483,000 mi); Source: NASA

Saturn backlit by the Sun, 2013 Source: NASA / cosmosmagazine.com	Undated, uncredited image of the rings in back light Source: gaia.com

The Cassini–Huygens probe, a collaboration between NASA, ESA, and the Italian Space Agency, was launched on October 15, 1997. On July 1, 2004, the probe was inserted into Saturn's orbit, where it remained for 13 years, delivering thousands of pictures of the planet, its rings and its moons. On September 15, 2017, after 294 orbits and 453,048 images taken, Cassini was de-orbited into Saturn's atmosphere. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXArtists's Conception of Cassini Saturn Orbit Insertion; source: NASA / JPL

During its active mission, Cassini took the widest variety of pictures taken by any spacecraft, including closeups of the ring system, infrared and visible light images of Saturn's cloud surface, pictures of the polar regions and closeups of a large number of Saturn's moons.

Venus peeking through Saturn's rings November 10, 2012 Source: NASA / Planetary Society

Saturn eclipsing the Sun September 15, 2006 Source: NASA / Planetary Society

Infrared image of Saturn's clouds July 20, 2016 Source: NASA / JPL / Caltec Kevin M. Gill

Panoramic scan across Saturn's rings (in the original image, the rings are labeled) Source: NASA / Planetary Society

Enormous storm in the northern hemisphere February 25, 2011 Source: NASA / Planetary Society

Hexagon at the North Pole November 28, 2012 Source: NASA / Planetary Society

North Pole Vortex Composite image from two filters; November 27, 2012 Source: NASA / Planetary Society

Mosaic of the ring system, 2007 Source: NASA / Wikipedia

Infrared image of Cassini's impact site Source: NASA

Cassini's last picture Source: NASA

One of Cassini's most important findings was that at least two of Saturn's moons (Titan and Enceladus) may offer potentially habitable environments. In order to prevent biological contamination of the moons, it was decided to crash the probe into Saturn's atmosphere before it ran out of fuel. During its last orbits, the probe performed some very close Saturn passes including approaching within the rings. On September 14, 2017, at 19:59 UTC, the probe took its last picture. The last signal was received on September 15, 2017 at 11:55:39 UTC. Shortly after, approximately 1,500 km above Saturn's cloud tops, the spacecraft burned up.

The Planetary Society and the JPL Photo Journal host large collections of images taken by Cassini. Part of the Cassini-Huygens project was the Huygens Lander. The probe soft landed on Titan on January 14, 2005 and thus became the first human-built object to touch the surface of a celestial body in the outer Solar System.

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