Incredible picture of Saturn that runs rings around all the others (and if you look carefully, you’ll see Earth in the distance)

There have been some amazing photographs taken of Saturn over the years, but none quite like this.

The stunning image comes courtesy of the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft while it was in orbit around the planet, which is the sixth furthest from the sun and lies around 800million miles from Earth.

It was taken at night as the probe looked back at the eclipsed sun, resulting in a picture that one Nasa astronomer described as ‘like no other’.

Here’s his explanation of why the image is so unusual: ‘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 colour 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 moon Enceladus and the outermost ring visible above.’

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