NASA's Cassini Delivers Holiday Treats From Saturn

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 PHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Jia-Rui Cook 818-354-0850
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
jccook@jpl.nasa.gov

Joe Mason 720-974-5859
Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
media@ciclops.org

Image advisory: 2011-393 Dec. 22, 2011

NASA's Cassini Delivers Holiday Treats From Saturn

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-393&cid=release_2011-393

PASADENA, Calif. -- No team of reindeer, but radio signals flying clear across the solar system from
NASA's Cassini spacecraft have delivered a holiday package of glorious images. The pictures, from
Cassini's imaging team, show Saturn's largest, most colorful ornament, Titan, and other icy baubles in
orbit around this splendid planet.

The release includes images of satellite conjunctions in which one moon passes in front of or behind
another. Cassini scientists regularly make these observations to study the ever-changing orbits of the
planet's moons. But even in these routine images, the Saturnian system shines. A few of Saturn's stark,
airless, icy moons appear to dangle next to the orange orb of Titan, the only moon in the solar system
with a substantial atmosphere. Titan's atmosphere is of great interest because of its similarities to the
atmosphere believed to exist long ago on the early Earth.

The images are online at: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini , http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and
http://ciclops.org .

While it may be wintry in Earth's northern hemisphere, it is currently northern spring in the Saturnian
system and it will remain so for several Earth years. Current plans to extend the Cassini mission
through 2017 will supply a continued bounty of scientifically rewarding and majestic views of Saturn
and its moons and rings, as spectators are treated to the passage of northern spring and the arrival of
summer in May 2017.

"As another year traveling this magnificent sector of our solar system draws to a close, all of us on
Cassini wish all of you a very happy and peaceful holiday season, " said Carolyn Porco, Cassini
imaging team lead at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

More information about Cassini mission is online at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the
Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed
and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

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