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1.3 billion kilometers is a great distance, but tonight consider it relatively close. That's how far away close Saturn will be to the Earth tonight. What does that mean for you? It means that with a telescope -- even a cheap one -- you can get a beautiful view of another planet that's more than 800 million miles away. Oh, you don't have a telescope? Go buy a telescope. There's still time.

Every once in a while, a story comes along to which the only appropriate response is "Dang." This morning brings us one such story, as images taken by NASA's Cassini probe in orbit around Saturn show it was host to a thunderstorm so massive that it wrapped around the entire planet. Like a snake attempting to eat its own tail, the atmospheric disturbance raced through Saturn's atmosphere with such speed and power that it eventually ran into its own rear end. That encounter seems to have caused it to sputter out, as if the storm somehow consumed itself, though the reasons for that are unclear to researchers.

While the above picture may look like an asteroid as seen in an enormous cosmic mirror, it's not -- it's much, much cooler than that. This is the one of the latest images from NASA's Cassini probe, which shows two of Saturns "shepherd moons" -- Pandora and Prometheus, and we swear we're not making that up -- seemingly staring at one another down across the planet's rings.

A new image taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows us that a little lighting goes a long way. The new picture of Saturn was taken in the planet's shadow, using the Sun as a back light for the solar system's third largest body. If NASA images were a Playboy magazine, this would be the centerfold. Turn-ons: Rings, moons, and hydrogen. Turn-offs: Short orbital periods, Pluto.

This is a composite images taken by NASA's Cassini probe of the enormous, swirling storm that dominates Saturn's north pole earlier this week. We've seen images of the storm, before, but never gotten this much detail on it and...man, just wow.  Keep reading for an even bigger image of the monster cyclone, which is estimated to meausure up to 4,000 kilometers across. That's about 2,500 miles, meaning that the vortex you're looking at would span the distance between New York City and Los Angeles.

In 2010, which is about three millennia ago on the Internet, NASA's Cassini Probe found perhaps the most important and relevant scientific discovery in the history of humanity: The heat signature of one of Saturn's moons, Mimas, looked just like Pac-Man. Today, we can all pay attention to what is clearly the most important things that will be said today, which is that another moon of Saturn, Tethys, has a similar heat signature. There's no word yet on whether this moon is a Ms. Pac-Man moon or not, but obviously we'll stay with this one all night if we have to.

Earlier this year, a team of Russian-led engineers and researchers drilled a hole into the Earth, breaking into Lake Vostok, a liquid water lake sealed beneath the ice of Antarctica for nearly 15 million years. They were looking for signs of life in the lake -- microbes that might offer clues to what sort of creatures we could expect to run into on icy moons elsewhere in the solar system, like Saturn's satellite Europa. This week, the first analyses of water samples from the lake are in, and they're pretty disheartening. Lake Vostok appears to be devoid of microbial life.

If you've been too focused on Mars in the recent weeks, that's understandable, but you shouldn't forget about Saturn. Though we haven't sent a rover into Saturn's gaseous mass like we've sent a few down to Mars, we do have a spy capturing Saturn's every move. The Cassini imaging team recently released a handful of new true color pictures of Saturn. They're quite gorgeous, and you should check them out below.

Since the Cassini spacecraft arrived in Saturn space back in 2004, it's sent back a steady stream of science and astounding imagery from this amazing system. Perhaps the most tantalizing have been data on Saturn's largest moon Titan, which sports an atmosphere and a strange environment of water ice and methane. Now, the formation of an enormous cloud over the moon's south pole suggest that things might be changing.

Saturn's moon Titan has been of particular interest to scientists because of the tantalizing hints that the moon could possibly support life. A new study by NASA presented scientists with a new mystery on Titan: A series of methane lakes recently discovered around the equator, where no lakes were thought to be possible. How they got there seems to indicate that this distant moon may be far more complex than originally thought.

The Cassini probe has been hanging around Saturn since 2004, and has given scientists an unprecedented view of the ringed planet and its moons. One of the more interesting of Saturn's natural satellites is Enceladus, which is known to not only have an icy crust, but periodically shoots geysers of water vapor, ice, and tantalizingly organic compounds. Cassini has sampled this spray before, and did again three days ago. While the analysis of the spray is probably some time away, we can enjoy these spectacular photos of Enceladus and the moon Tethys. See them, after the break.

NASA spacecraft Cassini has been chilling out in the area around Saturn just taking some pictures of the sights, and they are beautiful. It's been focused primarily on Titan and Dione, but given the quality of the shots, it seems like that's the right choice. More pretty pictures after the break.

This spectacular view of Saturn's moon Titan, and its little sister Dione, was captured this week by NASA's Cassini probe. Assembled by photographer Jason Major, the image shows off the ethereal glow of Titan's super-thick atmosphere. Space is so cool, guys.

Since it arrived in orbit around Saturn after seven years of flying, the Cassini-Hyugens spacecraft has captured some truly incredible images of the ringed planet. The latest among them is this photo, which was taken on July 29 but released just a few days ago. It shows five of the planet's 62 moons and edge of Saturn's rings, arranged with astounding artistry. Since most people are not familiar with the satellites of Saturn, NASA has provided this helpful information:

Janus (179 kilometers, or 111 miles across) is on the far left. Pandora (81 kilometers, or 50 miles across) orbits between the A ring and the thin F ring near the middle of the image. Brightly reflective Enceladus (504 kilometers, or 313 miles across) appears above the center of the image. Saturn's second largest moon, Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across), is bisected by the right edge of the image. The smaller moon Mimas (396 kilometers, or 246 miles across) can be seen beyond Rhea also on the right side of the image.

(NASA via Universe Today)

From NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day, the Cassini spacecraft drifted in Saturn's shadow for around twelve hours while looking back toward the eclipsed sun, and captured the above photograph. NASA explains:

First, the night side of Saturn is seen to be partly lit by light reflected from its own majestic ring system. Next, the rings themselves appear dark when silhouetted against Saturn, but quite bright when viewed away from Saturn, slightly scattering sunlight, in this exaggerated color image. Saturn's rings light up so much that new rings were discovered, although they are hard to see in the image. Seen in spectacular detail, however, is Saturn's E ring, the ring created by the newly discovered ice-fountains of the moonEnceladus and the outermost ring visible above. Far in the distance, at the left, just above the bright main rings, is the almost ignorable pale blue dot of Earth.

I wonder what I'd look like if Cassini drifted in front of me for twelve hours. Probably a lot like Saturn.

(NASA via Geekologie)