Space Image of the Day Gallery (September 2016)

Saturn's Shadow Illusion

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Thursday, September 29, 2016: NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured this photo of Saturn's sunny side on July 21, 2016. Saturn's rings cast a shadow of curved lines on the gas giant, making the planet appear as if its lower half disintegrating from the bottom up. — Hanneke Weitering

Pandora's Cluster

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Thursday, September 29, 2016: NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured this photo of Saturn's sunny side on July 21, 2016. Saturn's rings cast a shadow of curved lines on the gas giant, making the planet appear as if its lower half disintegrating from the bottom up. — Hanneke Weitering

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

Space.com Staff
News and editorial team

Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor.