Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Voyager 1's departure shot of Saturn

Voyager 1's departure shot of Saturn
Voyager 1's departure shot of Saturn Saturn was Voyager 1's last planetary encounter. It captured this iconic image of the ringed giant as it left the Saturn system at 21:15 UTC on December 15, 1980. NASA / JPL / color composite by Gordan Ugarkovic

Unlike its twin Voyager 2's departing view, Voyager 1 looked down onto the lit side of the rings; but since Saturn had just passed through its equinox, the Sun was not far above the ring plane, and the rings appeared dark. This is a newly reprocessed version created by Gordan Ugarkovic using green, blue, and violet filter images processed to resemble natural color.