European Space Agency and NASA just released this stunning photo of our planetary neighbour made by Cassini last November when the spacecraft was placed in the shadow of Saturn. This allowed Cassini to look in the direction of the Sun and take a backlit image of the planet and its rings. That bright dot peeking through the rings in this image is Venus. Read more here.
This is the full image and caption:
Venus shines like a bright beacon through the rings of Saturn in this unique image taken by the international Cassini spacecraft on 10 November 2012 when the spacecraft was placed in the shadow of Saturn. This allowed Cassini to look in the direction of the Sun and take a backlit image of the planet and its rings. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 802 000 km from Saturn and looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 17 degrees below the ring plane. The image scale is 44 km per pixel. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
