Cassini Approaches Saturn

Explanation: Cassini, a robot spacecraft launched in 1997 by NASA , became close enough in 2002 to resolve many rings and moons of its destination planet: Saturn . At that time, Cassini snapped several images during an engineering test. Several of those images were combined into the contrast-enhanced color composite featured here . Saturn's rings and cloud-tops are visible toward the image bottom, while Titan , its largest moon, is visible as the speck toward the top. When arriving at Saturn in July 2004, the Cassini orbiter began to circle and study the Saturnian system. A highlight was when Cassini launched the Huygens probe that made an unprecedented landing on Titan in 2005, sending back detailed pictures . Now nearing the end of its mission, Cassini is scheduled to embark on a Grand Finale phase in late 2016 where it will repeatedly dive between the giant planet and its innermost rings.