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)

Chris Abbas professes to being a bit of a space nut, and his appreciation for extraterrestrial exploration is evident in this video about NASA’s Cassini mission to Saturn. Comprised of images and video from the orbiter, Abbas created this hauntingly beautiful short film which certainly instills a sense of wonder. Watch, gentle reader, and be amazed.

(via Universe Today)

Taken by astronomers in Buena Vista, Georgia, the above photo of Saturn shows a massive storm engulfing the northern hemisphere, dubbed the Serpent Storm due to it snaking its way around 100 degrees of longitude across the planet. The storm isn’t static, and at times it has stretched over two-thirds of Saturn’s northern hemisphere, which is about 100,000 miles. The storm was first noticed by amateur astronomers in December 2010, and currently continues to circle the gas giant.

(NASA via io9)

What you’re seeing here is footage of Saturn and its moons made entirely from pictures taken by the Cassini space probe during its approach the ringed gas giant. Filmmaker Stepehen Van Vuuren has been working with those images to create an IMAX film called Outside In, which aims to present the beauty of Saturn and celebrate the achievements of the Cassini probe.

In addition to avoiding CG modeling, Van Vurren is accepting donations to help bring the film to fruition, calling it a non-profit project. Hopefully it’ll be coming to a giant-sized screen soon, I can’t wait.

(Outside In via Wired)

The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft recently performed the closest flyby of Rhea, the second-largest moon of Saturn, ever, to discover what scientists have long suspected: Rhea, like a couple of Jupiter’s moons, has a little baby atmosphere. And while this atmosphere is mostly oxygen and carbon dioxide, there isn’t enough oxygen to be breathable by humans; and while the carbon dioxide could be cause by the existence of rudimentary life, there are a lot of other things that could cause it to appear.

Alien Head Pez Dispenser (Toycutter)

Epic Gauntlet Thrown to Olivia Munn (Bitchmedia)

Mary Jane Will Not Be In The New Spider-Man (Topless Robot)

Rod Blagojevich is Doing What at Wizard World? (Bleeding Cool)

Dylan Meconis Teaches You How To Draw a Tricorner Hat, With Macros (Heroine of the Hour)

Tell Us Stories, Mister Gaiman! :D (Bleeding Cool)

Sexiest Images From Saturn (Wired Science)

(image via Reddit.)

In a recent interview with Vibe, legendary hip-hop producer and rapper Dr. Dre sent us into a collective swoon when he let it drop that “for a long time,” he’s wanted to make an instrumental album about Earth’s solar system called The Planets. Each track would consist of Dre’s interpretations of the planets in the solar system. And he’d need surround sound to convey the majesty of Saturn.