Fantastic Photos of our Solar System

Fantastic Photos of our Solar System

In the past decade, extraordinary space missions have found water on Mars, magnetic storms on Mercury and volcanoes on the moons of Saturn

The robotic Opportunity rover is currently exploring Mars.
This image of Cape St. Vincent is part of the wall of Victoria Crater.

Fantastic Photos of our Solar System

The Galileo spacecraft captured this image of Jupiter’s moon Europa.
Visible are ice, cracks that run to the horizon and dark patches that most likely contain ice and dirt.

Fantastic Photos of our Solar System

The Cassini spacecraft, which is now orbiting Saturn, looked back toward the eclipsed Sun and saw a view unlike any other. The rings of Saturn light up so much that new rings were discovered.

Fantastic Photos of our Solar System

In this image, the Cassini spacecraft captured a near alignment of four of Saturn’s moons (Titan, Dione, Prometheus and Telesto).

Fantastic Photos of our Solar System

New images from the Cassini spacecraft display the slightly different densities of Saturn’s rings.

Link to the rest of the Smithsonian collection.