Then and Now: Our Earliest Close-Ups of the Planets Compared to Today's Best Shots | Page 14 of 21

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Pioneer 11 captures Saturn

Image: NASA

NASA’s Pioneer 11 probe captured this close-up view of of Saturn and its Moon Titan on August 26, 1979. “The irregularities in ring silhouette and shadow are due to technical anomalies in the preliminary data later corrected,” according to NASA. Pioneer 11 captured the image when it was 1.77 million miles (2.84 million km) from the ringed planet.

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