The Night Side of Saturn
NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory,Voyager Project
This image of Saturn was made in November 1980 by the
Voyager
1 spacecraft as it flew past the ringed gas giant planet.
From a spectacular vantage point, looking back toward the
inner solar system, the robot spacecraft recorded this
view of the night side of Saturn casting a sharp shadow across
the bright rings.
No Earth based telescope could ever take a similar picture.
Since Earth is closer to the sun than Saturn,
only the day side of the planet is visible from the Earth.