Saturn, Its Rings, and Titan From Pioneer 11

NASA's Pioneer 11, a sister spacecraft to Pioneer 10, was the first spacecraft to study Saturn up close. Pioneer 11 launched on April 5, 1973. The mission ended in 1995, and Pioneer 11 is on a trajectory to take it out of the solar system. This image was taken on Sept. 1, 1979, during the spacecraft's flyby of Saturn. It shows Saturn, its rings, and Saturn's largest moon, Titan. At the time this image was taken, the spacecraft was 1,768,422 miles (about 2,846,000 kilometers) from Saturn. Eventually Pioneer 11 came within about 13,000 miles (21,000 kilometers) of Saturn. Pioneer 11 discovered two new moons orbiting Saturn — almost smacking into one of them as it flew by. It also found a new “F” ring. The spacecraft also discovered and charted the magnetosphere, magnetic field and mapped the general structure of Saturn’s interior.