Saturn's Moons Imagery

Stunning monochrome images of Saturn's moons Iapetus, Rhea, and Mimas, highlighting their surface features and impact craters.

Saturn's Moon Dione

Unveiling Iapetus

Rhea sports an immense impact scar on its leading hemisphere, like several other major Saturnian moons. The impact basin, seen above center on the day-night dividing line, or terminator, is named Tirawa

Cratered Crescent

Blasted by Impacts

Craters on Mimas

NASA's Voyager 2 took this image on January 24, 1986, showing Ariel's surface densely pitted with craters. Numerous valleys and fault scarps crisscross the highly pitted terrain.

Saturn's Moon Dione

Voyager 2 obtained this full-disk view of Uranus' moon Titania in the early morning hours of Jan. 24, 1986, from a distance of about 500,000 kilometers (300,000 miles). Many circular depressions, probably impact craters, are visible in this clear-filter.

This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 4, 2015, from a distance of 8,400 miles (13,600 kilometers).

The moon from space

This still from an animation showcases a series of images NASA's Dawn spacecraft took on approach to Ceres on Feb. 4, 2015 at a distance of about 90,000 miles (145,000 kilometers) from the dwarf planet.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows a new view of Saturn's moon Enceladus in a whole-disk mosaic of the geologically active moon's leading, or western, hemisphere.

This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on April 29, 2015, from a distance of 8,400 miles (13,600 kilometers).

This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 7, 2015, from a distance of 8,400 miles (13,600 kilometers).

This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on April 29, 2015, from a distance of 8,400 miles (13,600 kilometers).

Bright streaks adorn the face of densely cratered Rhea, Saturn's second largest moon

Mimas in View

NASA's Cassini spacecraft looks at Saturn's highly irregular moon Hyperion in this view from the spacecraft's flyby of the moon on Aug. 25, 2011.

Scratches on Dione

The Rays of Rhea

Enceladus dramatically displays the contrast between its older and newer terrain as seen by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. This view looks toward the anti-Saturn side of Enceladus. North on Enceladus is up and rotated 36 degrees to the right.

This mosaic, created from images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, looks straight at Saturn's moon Mimas' huge Herschel Crater revealing bright-walled craters, with floors and surroundings about 20 percent darker than the steep crater walls.

NASA's Cassini Orbiter captures a far-off view of the two-toned surface of Saturn's moon, Iapetus. Scientists continue to investigate the nature of this moon's surface.

Europa's Leading Hemisphere

Two sources of light illuminate the textured surface of the moon Enceladus in this image taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft's narrow angle camera.

Dione's Fractured Face

Big Bangs on Tethys

Fore!

Ceres rotates in this frame from a movie comprised of images taken by NASA's Dawn mission during its approach to the dwarf planet. The images were taken on Feb. 19, 2015, from a distance of nearly 29,000 miles (46,000 kilometers).

Icy Old Moon

Artist's depiction of a heavily cratered moon. The moon elements were extracted from a false color, NASA topo map.

Magnificent Scars

This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 1, 2015, from a distance of 8,400 miles (13,600 kilometers).

NASA's Cassini spacecraft examines old and new terrain on Saturn's fascinating Enceladus, a moon where jets of water ice particles and vapor spew from the south pole. Newly created terrain is at the bottom, in the center and on the left of this view.

Saturn's Moon Mimas

NASA's Cassini spacecraft looks toward the battered surface of the moon Rhea.

$Cassini whizzed past Dione on Aug. 16, 2006, capturing this slightly motion-blurred view of the moon's fractured and broken landscape in reflected light from Saturn$

This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft April 24 to 26, 2015, from a distance of 8,500 miles (13,500 kilometers).

In this closest-yet view of Ceres, the brightest spots within a crater in the northern hemisphere are revealed to be composed of many smaller spots. This frame is from an animation of sequences taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 4, 2015.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft looks toward a crescent of Saturn's dark and light moon, Iapetus.

The Cassini spacecraft continues to image terrain on Iapetus that is progressively eastward of the terrain it has previously seen illuminated by sunlight

Looking up from the South

This image is one several images NASA's Dawn spacecraft took on approach to Ceres on Feb. 4, 2015 at a distance of about 90,000 miles (145,000 kilometers) from the dwarf planet.

The lunar farside.

Rhea's Bright Blemish

Detail on Dione (Monochrome)

$Looking down onto the northern hemisphere of geologically complex Enceladus, the Cassini spacecraft spies softened, or relaxed, craters and east-west trending fractures and faults.$

The Cassini spacecraft looks at a brightly illuminated Enceladus and examines the surface of the leading hemisphere of this Saturnian moon.

A Southern Hemisphere Overview

Over Eros' Horizon

Tethys in the Dark

Although Mimas holds the unofficial designation of 'Death Star moon,' Tethys is seen here also vaguely resembling the space station from Star Wars. Apparently, Tethys doesn't want Mimas to have all the fun!

A swath of cliffs and troughs stretches about 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) on Pluto's largest moon Charon are revealed in this image from NASA'as New Horizon's spacecraft, taken late on July 13, 2015.

The northern and southern hemispheres of Rhea are seen in these polar stereographic maps, mosaicked from the best-available NASA Cassini and Voyager images. Six Voyager images fill in gaps in Cassini's coverage of the moon's north pole.

Odysseus on Tethys

This visual and infrared mapping spectrometer image captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft of Saturn's moon Enceladus, shows the dark cracks at the south pole dubbed 'tiger stripes' for their distinct stripe-like appearance.

Martian Moon, Phobos

Phobos from 5,800 Kilometers

NASA's Cassini captured these views of Saturn's icy moon Rhea on Feb. 9. The spacecraft returned to equatorial orbits around Saturn in March after nearly two years, allowing the mission to once again have close encounters with moons other than Titan.

Phoebe, Moon of Saturn

Saturn's moon Dione is captured in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, half in shadow and half in light. Sinuous canyons carve interconnected paths across the moon's icy landscape. Subtle variations in brightness hint at differences in composition, as well as the size and shape of grains in Dione's surface material, or regolith. Cassini spent more than a decade at Saturn studying Dione (698 miles or 1,123 kilometers across) and the planet's many other moons as part of the quest to understand how the moons formed and evolved, and how they are connected. This view looks toward the side of Dione that faces away from Saturn. North is up and rotated 59 degrees to the right. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 22, 2017. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 224,000 miles (360,000 kilometers) from Dione. Image scale is 1.4 mile (2.2 kilometers) per pixel. The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017.

These images of dwarf planet Ceres, processed to enhance clarity, were taken on Feb. 19, 2015, from a distance of about 29,000 miles (46,000 kilometers), by NASA's Dawn spacecraft. Dawn observed Ceres completing one full rotation, lasting about nine hours

This montage shows the best views of Jupiter's four large and diverse 'Galilean' satellites as seen by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI)

One Week Later

Saturn - Tethys from 594,000 kilometers (368,000 miles) Away

Details in the Dark

A variety of craters and other geological features can be found on dwarf planet Ceres. NASA's Dawn spacecraft took this image of Ceres from an altitude of 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers) on June 5, 2015.

Tvashtar's Plume

NASA's Cassini imaging scientists processed this view of Saturn's moon Hyperion, taken during a close flyby on May 31, 2015. This flyby marks the mission's final close approach to Saturn's largest irregularly shaped moon.

Two of Saturn's moons, Tethys and the much smaller Janus, are captured in this photo from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

As the moon Enceladus eclipses its neighbor Mimas, Cassini records a scene possible only around the time of Saturn's approaching equinox.

Faults on Saturn's Moon Dione

Tethys Meets Dione (Animation)

A sinuous feature snakes northward from Enceladus' south pole like a giant tentacle in this image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. This feature, is actually tectonic in nature, created by stresses in Enceladus' icy shell.

Seen from outside, Enceladus appears to be like most of its sibling moons: cold, icy and inhospitable, as seen by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

This image shows NASA's Dawn's view of Vesta from June 20, 2011, when the approaching spacecraft was about 117,000 miles (189,000 kilometers) away from the body.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft stared toward Saturn's two-toned moon Iapetus for about a week in early 2015, in a campaign motivated in part to investigate subtle color differences within the moon's bright terrain.

At top of this image, Saturn's moon Dione may appear closer to the spacecraft because it is larger than the moon Enceladus in the lower left. However, Enceladus was actually closer to the spacecraft in this image captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Saturn's moon Rhea passes in front of Dione, as seen from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. These images are part of a 'mutual event' sequence in which one moon passes close to, or in front of, another.

The Sculptured Surface of Eros

Juno Getting Closer to Jovian Moon Io. This image of the Jovian moon Io was generated using data collected by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft during a flyby of the moon on March 1, 2023. At the time of closest approach, Juno was about 32,000 miles (51,500 kilometers) away from Io. The image's resolution is about 22 miles (35 kilometers) per pixel. Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created this image using data from JunoCam. https //photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25885

During its close flyby of Saturn's moon Mimas on Aug. 2, 2005, Cassini caught a glimpse of Mimas against the broad expanse of Saturn's rings. The Keeler Gap in the outer A ring, in which Cassini spied a never-before-seen small moon (see PIA06237), is at the upper right. The ancient, almost asteroid-like surface of Mimas is evident in its crater-upon-crater appearance. Even the material which has slumped down into the bottom of some of its craters bears the marks of later impacts. This image was taken through the clear filter of the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at a distance of 68,000 kilometers (42,500 miles) from Mimas and very near closest approach. The smallest features seen on the moon are about 400 meters wide (440 yards); the Sun-Mimas-Cassini angle is 44 degrees. http //photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06412

Mosaic of Mathilde

This processed image, taken Jan. 13, 2015, shows the dwarf planet Ceres as seen from the Dawn spacecraft. The image hints at craters on the surface of Ceres. Dawn's framing camera took this image at 238,000 miles (383,000 kilometers) from Ceres.

Dione's Pockmarked Side

NASA's Cassini spacecraft takes a close view of some of the southern terrain of Saturn's moon Enceladus, where newly created terrain is on display.

Enhanced-color image of Phobos from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter with Stickney crater on the right

Pictures of Tethys' Large Crater

The south polar region of Saturn's active, icy moon Enceladus awaits NASA's Cassini spacecraft in this view, acquired on approach to the mission's deepest-ever dive through the moon's plume of icy spray.

The northern and southern hemispheres of Rhea are seen in these polar stereographic maps, mosaicked from the best-available NASA's Cassini and Voyager images.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft examines the characteristics of Titan's atmosphere as it peers at Saturn's largest moon using a filter sensitive to visible violet light.

This view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft looks toward Saturn's icy moon Dione, with giant Saturn and its rings in the background, just prior to the mission's final close approach to the moon on August 17, 2015.

Rugged Janus

Planet Mercury, the bright crater just south of the center of the image is Kuiper

. The Terminator is Here

The Galilean Satellites

Apollo 17 - A Heavily Cratered Moon

Enceladus is a world divided, as seen by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The terrain to the north is covered in impact craters, to the south, cratering is much more sparse.

Mercury as Never Seen Before

The moon Enceladus passes behind the larger moon Tethys, as seen in this pair of images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The image on the left was taken a little more than a minute before the image on the right.

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