Saturn Quadruple Transit Science Visualization

Quadruple Saturn Moon Transit Snapped By Hubble

On February 24, 2009, the Hubble Space Telescope took a photo of four moons of Saturn passing in front of their parent planet. In this view, the giant orange moon Titan casts a large shadow onto Saturn's north polar hood. Below Titan, near the ring plane and to the left is the...

HST Image of Saturn Moon Transits

This sequence of images captures the parade of several of Saturn's moons transiting the face of the gas giant planet. This is a rare event because the rings are tilted edge on to Earth every 15 years. The top frame captures the giant moon Titan and its shadow near Saturn's...

HST Image of Saturn: February 24, 2009 12:12 UT

HST Image of Saturn: February 24, 2009 14:25 UT

HST Image of Saturn: February 24, 2009 15:27 UT

Closeup of Quadruple Saturn Moon Transit

This close-up view of Saturn's disk captures the transit of several moons across the face of the gas giant planet. The giant orange moon Titan – larger than the planet Mercury – can be seen at upper right. The white icy moons that are much closer to Saturn, hence much closer to...

Compass and Scale Image of Saturn

Annotated Image of Saturn's Rings and Moons

Photo Sequence of Saturn: February 24, 2009

Saturn's Rings Viewed from Earth

As Saturn travels around its orbit, Hubble sees a different view of the tilted rings from a position near Earth. The rings nearly disappear twice during Saturn's approximately 30-year orbit, because we see them edge on and they are extremely thin relative to their diameter.

Saturn Quadruple Transit Science Visualization (Narrated)

This Hubble movie shows four of Saturn's moons moving across the face of their parent planet on February 24, 2009. Icy moons Enceladus and Dione are on the far left, while the large orange moon Titan and icy Mimas are on the right.