Visions of Saturn

In October 2004, Cassini captured a series of 126 images within the space of 2 hours, which were then combined to create the largest, most detailed global view of Saturn and its rings in natural colour ever made. The spacecraft was approximately 6.3 million kilometres from the planet Photograph: Nasa

Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer captured this image of Saturn's glow on its unlit side, represented here in electric blue, sapphire and mint green. The planet is casting a strong shadow over its rings. This is a composite of 25 images taken over a period of 13 hours Photograph: Nasa

A huge storm (just above right of centre) known as the Dragon Storm which appeared in Saturn's southern hemisphere in mid-September 2004. This composite image of Saturn's atmosphere and rings was taken in near infrared light through filters that sense different amounts of methane gas. Large concentrations show up in red, indicating clouds deep in the atmosphere. Grey indicates high clouds, and brown indicates clouds at intermediate altitudes Photograph: Nasa

A mosaic image of Saturn combining 30 pictures – 10 each of red, green and blue light – taken over the course of two hours as Cassini panned its wide-angle camera across the entire planet and its ring system in July 2008 Photograph: Nasa

Ancient craters on Saturn's moon Enceladus. The blue fractures in the south polar terrain are encircled by a continuous chain of folds and ridges, reflecting the seismic forces within the moon Photograph: Nasa

False-colour ultraviolet image showing layers of haze in Titan's upper atmosphere. The fine layers extend several hundred kilometres above the moon's surface Photograph: Nasa

Jets of ice particles, water vapour and trace organic compounds spurting from the surface of Enceladus Photograph: Nasa

Close-up of Enceladus showing a distinctive pattern of roughly parallel faults within the moon's southern polar latitudes, referred to by imaging scientists as tiger stripes Photograph: Nasa

Saturn's moon Iapetus, which is just 912 miles in diameter Photograph: Nasa