The Morning Star, seen from Saturn

Filed under pretty pictures, many worlds, Venus, Saturn, Saturn's rings, Cassini

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Dawn on Saturn is greeted across the vastness of interplanetary space by the morning star, Venus, in this image from Cassini. Venus appears just off the edge of the planet, in the upper part of the image, directly above the white streak of Saturn's G ring. Lower down, Saturn's E ring makes an appearance, looking blue thanks to the scattering properties of the dust that comprises the ring. A bright spot near the E ring is a distant star.

NASA / JPL / SSI

This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 21 degrees below the ring plane. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Jan. 4, 2013, at a distance of approximately 597,000 kilometers from Saturn.

Original image data dated on or about January 4, 2013