Explanation: From a spectacular vantage point over 1.4 billion kilometers from the sun, the Voyager 1 spacecraft looked back toward the inner solar system to record this startling view of Saturn's nightside. The picture was taken on November 16, 1980, some four days after the robot spacecraft's closest approach to the gorgeous gas giant. The crescent planet casts a broad shadow across its bright rings while the translucent rings themselves can be seen to cast a shadow on Saturn's cloud tops. Since Earth is closer to the sun than Saturn, only Saturn's dayside is visible to Earth-bound telescopes which could never take a picture like this one. After this successful flyby two decades ago, Voyager 1 has continued outward bound and is presently humanity's most distant spacecraft. The next spacecraft to approach Saturn will be Cassini, on course to arrive in 2004.

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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami: Saturn - Voyager 1 - Saturn - solnechnaya sistema - Voyadzher Publikacii so slovami: Saturn - Voyager 1 - Saturn - solnechnaya sistema - Voyadzher
Sm. takzhe: Saturn noch'yu Luna zatmevaet Saturn Saturn u kraya Luny Semeinyi portret Solnechnoi sistemy Cveta Saturna ot "Kassini" Vremena goda na Saturne Severnyi shestiugol'nik na Saturne Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >>