A couple of Saturn's smaller moons are barely visible in the photo

Dec 29, 2012 16:21 GMT  ·  By

The Cassini probe has been flying around Saturn for several years now, in fact, several years after it was supposed to be decommissioned. And it's still doing a wonderful job of capturing images and studying one of if not the most beautiful planet in our solar system.

Raw images come in all the time, but without processing or experts pointing out the interesting details, they're not of much use to regular people.

The most interesting shots though, get some care from the NASA team handling the mission. Just before Christmas, the team has published a spectacular view of Saturn and its rings along with a couple of its 60 moons.

The photo has been cleaned up and slightly enhanced to make some of the details more visible. In the higher resolution versions, you can spot Mimas, one of the smaller moons, or rather, it's elongated shadow below the shadow of the rings.

Above Saturn's north pole, you can also spot Janus, another small Saturn moon, as a small bright spot. The photo had to be enhanced, making Janus brighter, to be able to see it more clearly.

An even more spectacular and wallpaper-worthy shot of Saturn was also published earlier this month.