NASA has released stunning images of Saturn and two of its moons, Titan and Enceladus. The infrared view, taken by the Cassini spacecraft, show the cosmic bodies dressed for Christmas.
"During this, our tenth holiday season at Saturn, we hope that these images from Cassini remind everyone the world over of the significance of our discoveries in exploring such a remote and beautiful planetary system," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader, based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. "Happy holidays from all of us on Cassini."
The image was taken, Aug. 12, 2013, using a wide-angle camera from about 994,000 miles away from the planet, Space.com reported.
Pictures of Enceladus show fissures and ridges on the moons' surface in great detail while Titan's image clearly shows a swirling high-altitude vortex against the moon's unlit atmosphere. The best images, however, are of Saturn. The planet's South Pole, which is now experiencing winter, has brilliant blue hues and is looking like a wonderland, NASA said in a news release.
Last month, NASA released a natural color image of Saturn along with all its rings. The image also featured earth in the frame, looking like a tiny blue speck along with Mars and Venus.
The Cassini-Huygens mission was launched in the year 1997 and is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The mission will collect more data about the planet until 2017, after which it will fall on the planet's surface.