Gas Giants of the Solar System

Stunning images of Jupiter and Saturn, highlighting their unique colors, rings, and moons in a cosmic setting.

True Color Image of Saturn Taken by Voyager 2 (8/4/81). 3 of Saturn's Icy Moons are Seen (Tethys, Thea & Dione).

Photograph of the planet Jupiter. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. Dated 21st Century

True Color Image of Saturn Taken by Voyager 2 (8/4/81). 3 of Saturn's Icy Moons are Seen (Tethys, Thea & Dione).

This true-color simulated view of Jupiter is composed of 4 images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on December 7, 2000.

This true color mosaic of Jupiter was constructed from images taken by the narrow angle camera onboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft on December 29, 2000, during its closest approach to the giant planet.

Saturn, Rings, and Moons, Seen by Cassini

Portrait of Jupiter from Cassini

Jupiter, planet and universe for solar system, nebula or science with mock up space on black background. Galaxy, sky and innovation with research, milky way or astrology for exploration and discovery

Hubble Catches Jupiter's Largest Moon Going to the 'Dark Side'HST/WFPC2 Image of Jupiter and Ganymede Taken April 9, 2007NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has caught Jupiter's moon Ganymede playing a game of "peek-a-boo." In this crisp Hubble image, Ganymede is shown just before it ducks behind the giant planet.Ganymede completes an orbit around Jupiter every seven days. Because Ganymede's orbit is tilted nearly edge-on to Earth, it routinely can be seen passing in front of and disappearing behind its giant host, only to reemerge later.Composed of rock and ice, Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system. It is even larger than the planet Mercury. But Ganymede looks like a dirty snowball next to Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. Jupiter is so big that only part of its Southern Hemisphere can be seen in this image.Hubble's view is so sharp that astronomers can see features on Ganymede's surface, most notably the white impact crater, Tros, and its system of rays, b

The solar system's largest moon, Ganymede, is captured here alongside the planet Jupiter in a color picture taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Dec. 3, 2000.

This montage of images of Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io, was taken by the New Horizons spacecraft's flyby in early 2007. The Jupiter image is an infrared color composite taken by the spacecraft's near-infrared imaging spectrometer on February 28, 2007. The infrared wavelengths used highlight variations in the altitude of the Jovian cloud tops, with blue denoting high-altitude clouds and hazes, and red indicating deeper clouds. The prominent bluish-white oval is the Great Red Spot. The Io ima

This Saturn equinox, captured here in a mosaic of light and dark, is the first witnessed up close by an emissary from Earth, none other than our NASA's faithful robotic explorer, Cassini.

Jupiter, illustration

Saturn, computer artwork.

This is a montage of New Horizons images of Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io, taken during the spacecraft's Jupiter flyby in early 2007. LORRI.

This colorful view, taken from edge-on with the ringplane, contains four of Saturn's attendant moons. Tethys (1,071 kilometers, 665 miles across) is seen against the black sky to the left of the gas giant's limb. Brilliant Enceladus (505 kilometers, 314 miles across) sits against the planet near right. Irregular Hyperion (280 kilometers, 174 miles across) is at the bottom of the image, near left. Much smaller Epimetheus (116 kilometers, 72 miles across) is a speck below the rings directly between Tethys and Enceladus. Epimetheus casts an equally tiny shadow onto the blue northern hemisphere, just above the thin shadow of the F ring. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 24, 2007 at a distance of approximately 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 116 kilometers (72 miles) per pixel on Saturn. http //photojournal

the red spot on Jupiter as seen by the space probe 'Cassini'. This is the most detailed global colour portrait of Jupiter ever assembled 2009. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a giant planet with a mass one-thousandth that of the Sun, but two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined.

Illustration of Saturn

NASA's Cassini Orbiter captured this natural color view of Saturn almost a month after the planet's August 2009 equinox. The shadow cast on the planet by the rings remains narrow.

A serene orb of ice is set against the gentle pastel clouds of giant Saturn. Rhea transits the face of the gas giant, whose darkened rings and their planet-hugging shadows appear near upper right

This false-color mosaic from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows the tail of Saturn's huge northern storm. The head of the storm is beyond the horizon in this view.

Jupiter, artwork

Few sights in the solar system are more strikingly beautiful than softly hued Saturn embraced by the shadows of its stately rings.

Late last year, a new, remarkably bright storm erupted in Saturns northern hemisphere. Amateur astronomers first spotted it in early December, with the ringed gas giant rising in planet Earths predawn sky. Orbiting Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft was able to record this close-up of the complex disturbance from a distance of 1.8 million kilometres on December 24th. Over time, the storm has evolved, spreading substantially in longitude, and now stretches far around the planet. Saturns thin rings are also seen slicing across this space-based view, casting broad shadows on the planets southern hemisphere.

This view captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows Saturn's northern hemisphere in 2016, as that part of the planet nears its northern hemisphere summer solstice in May 2017. Saturn's year is nearly 30 Earth years long.

This image was acquired on September 12, 2010, when Jupiter was close to opposition. South is up and the 'Great Red Spot' is visible. Two of Jupiter's moons, Io and Ganymede, can also be seen in this image.

Voyager 1 took this photo of Jupiter and two of its satellites (Io, left, and Europa) on Feb. 13, 1979.

Artist's concept of a blue-white gas giant planet

Hubble Observes a New Saturn Storm

A Change of Seasons on Saturn - October, 1996

Jupiter's north polar region is coming into view as NASA's Juno spacecraft approaches the giant planet. This view of Jupiter was taken on August 27, when Juno was 437,000 miles (703,000 kilometers) away.

View of Saturn's rings as they surround the planet. Cassini.

Jupiter

southern hemisphere of Jupiter. image obtained by Voyager 2 on June 25, 1979, at a distance of 12 million kilometres (8 million miles). Seen in front of the turbulent clouds of the planet is Io, the innermost of the large Galilean satellites of Jupiter. Io is the size of our moon.

Saturn and major moons, illustration

NASA's Juno spacecraft captured this image with its JunoCam citizen science instrument from a mere 5,400 miles above Jupiter's cloudtops.

This stunning compilation image of Jupiter's stormy northern hemisphere was captured by NASA's Juno spacecraft as it performed a close pass of the gas giant planet. Some bright-white clouds can be seen popping up to high altitudes on the right side of Jupiter's disk. (The Juno team frequently refers to clouds like these as pop-up clouds in image captions.) Juno took the four images used to produce this color-enhanced view on May 29, 2019, between 12 52 a.m. PDT (3 52 a.m. EDT) and 1 03 a.m. PDT (4 03 a.m. EDT), as the spacecraft performed its 20th science pass of Jupiter. At the time the images were taken, the spacecraft was between 11,600 miles (18,600 kilometers) and 5,400 miles (8,600 kilometers) above Jupiter's cloud tops, above a northern latitude spanning from about 59 to 34 degrees. Enhanced image by Kevin M. Gill (CC-BY) based on images provided courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

Saturn's Rings as Seen by Cassini

Artist's impression of an ice giant.

Cassini peers around the hazy limb of Titan to spy the sunlit south pole of Saturn in the distance beyond

Nested Rings

The puzzling appearance of an ice cloud seemingly out of thin air has prompted NASA scientists to suggest that a different process than previously thought -- possibly similar to one seen over Earth's poles -- could be forming clouds on Saturn's moon Titan. Located in Titan's stratosphere, the cloud is made of a compound of carbon and nitrogen known as dicyanoacetylene (C4N2), an ingredient in the chemical cocktail that colors the giant moon's hazy, brownish-orange atmosphere. Read more a href= http //go.nasa.gov/2crVEPM rel= nofollow go.nasa.gov/2crVEPM /a b a href= http //www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html rel= nofollow NASA image use policy. /a /b b a href= http //www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html rel= nofollow NASA Goddard Space Flight Center /a /b enables NASAs mission through four scientific endeavors Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASAs accomplishments by contribut

Artist's concept showing how Saturn might look from high above the ring plane and at a right angle to the Sun, a perspective that we could never get from the Earth nor from the Hubble Space Telescope

The recently formed south polar vortex stands out in the color-swaddled atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, in this natural color view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

NASA's Juno spacecraft saw this striking vista during its most recent close flyby of Jupiter. This view highlights the contrast between the colorful South Equatorial Belt and the mostly white Southern Tropical Zone, a latitude that also features Jupiter's most famous phenomenon, the persistent, anticyclonic storm known as the Great Red Spot. Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created this image using data from the spacecraft's JunoCam imager. The raw image was taken on July 20, 2019, at 9 37 p.m. PDT (July 21, 2019, at 12 37 a.m. EDT) as the Juno spacecraft performed its 21st close flyby of Jupiter. At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was 26,697 miles (42,965 kilometers) from the tops of the clouds, above a latitude of 46 degrees south. Enhanced image by Kevin M. Gill (CC-BY) based on images provided courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS.

The gas giant Carter orbited by it's two small moons Banth and Sorak.

This enhanced-color image of Jupiter's south pole and its swirling atmosphere was created by citizen scientist Roman Tkachenko using data from the JunoCam imager on NASA's Juno spacecraft.

Artist's impression of a giant planet.

Venus, artwork

This extraordinary view of Jupiter was captured by NASA's Juno spacecraft on the outbound leg of its 12th close flyby of the gas giant planet. This new perspective of Jupiter from the south makes the Great Red Spot appear as though it is in northern territory. This view is unique to Juno and demonstrates how different our view is when we step off the Earth and experience the true nature of our three-dimensional universe. Juno took the images used to produce this color-enhanced image on April 1 between 3 04 a.m. PDT (6 04 a.m. EDT) and 3 36 a.m. PDT (6 36 a.m. EDT). At the time the images were taken, the spacecraft was between 10,768 miles (17,329 kilometers) to 42,849 miles (68,959 kilometers) from the tops of the clouds of the planet at a southern latitude spanning 34.01 to 71.43 degrees. Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran created this image using data from the spacecraft's JunoCam imager. The view is a composite of several separate JunoCam images that were re-projecte

Vintage Photograph. Explore the majestic beauty of Jupiter and its moons in stunning detail.

Mid-section views of Jupiter. Cassini.

HD 40307 c is a Neptune-like gas giant exoplanet that orbits a K-type star.

Illustration of Saturn

. NASA's Hubble Takes Close-up Portrait of Jupiter

Kepler-7b (right), which is 1.5 times the radius of Jupiter (left), is the first exoplanet to have its clouds mapped. The cloud map was produced using data from NASA's Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes.

the planet Saturn

NASA image of planets in outer space.

Representation of Uranus (planet) isolated on black background.

Artist's impression of a water clouds gas giant.

Neptune and Triton (Digital Composite from Voyager 2)

This false-color composite image, constructed from data obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, shows Saturn's rings and southern hemisphere.

Saturn and its Rings

Jupiter gas giant slowly orbiting in deep space concept

Saturn

Artist's concept of how Uranus and its tiny satellite Puck might look from a position in space about a thousand miles above and beyond Puck itself

Jupiter's Great Red Spot

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows detailed analysis of two continent-sized storms that erupted in Jupiter's atmosphere in March 2007 shows that Jupiter's internal heat plays a significant role in generating atmospheric disturbances .

Artist's depiction of a gas giant planet surrounded by three moons. The view is from the largest and farthest moon in the group.

Io Transit of Jupiter

Jupiter's satellite Io poses before the giant planet in this photo returned January 17, 1979. The satellite's shadow can be seen falling on the face of Jupiter at left. Io is traveling from left to right in its orbit around Jupiter.

Jupiter G Impact Evolution

NASA's Juno spacecraft was racing away from Jupiter following its seventh close pass of the planet when JunoCam snapped this image on May 19, 2017, from about 29,100 miles (46,900 kilometers) above the cloud tops. The spacecraft was over 65.9 degrees south latitude, with a lovely view of the south polar region of the planet. This image was processed to enhance color differences, showing the amazing variety in Jupiter's stormy atmosphere. The result is a surreal world of vibrant color, clarity and contrast. Four of the white oval storms known as the String of Pearls are visible near the top of the image. Interestingly, one orange-colored storm can be seen at the belt-zone boundary, while other storms are more of a cream color. Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran processed this image using data from the JunoCam imager.

Artist' concept of Neptune and Earth

Detailed structure in the clouds of Jupiter's South Equatorial Belt brown barge is visible in this color-enhanced image taken at 10 28 p.m. PDT on July 15, 2018 (1 28 a.m. EDT on July 16), as the spacecraft performed its 14th close flyby of the gas giant planet. Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created this image using data from the spacecraft's JunoCam imager.

3d rendering of the planet Saturn isolated over white background. Elements of this image furnished by NASA

NASA's Voyager 1 took this picture of the planet Jupiter on Jan. 6, 1979, the first in its three-month-long, close-up investigation of the largest planet.

A long, brown oval known as a brown barge in Jupiter's South Equatorial Belt is captured in this color-enhanced image from NASA's Juno spacecraft. Brown barges are cyclonic regions that usually lie within Jupiter's dark North Equatorial Belt, although they are sometimes found in the similarly dark South Equatorial Belt as well. They can often be difficult to detect visually because their color blends in with the dark surroundings. At other times, as with this image, the dark belt material recedes, creating a lighter-colored background against which the brown barge is more conspicuous. Brown barges usually dissipate after the entire cloud belt undergoes an upheaval and reorganizes itself. Juno is giving us the first glimpses of the detailed structure within such a barge. This image was taken at 6 26 p.m. PDT on Sept. 6, 2018 (9 26 p.m. EDT) as the spacecraft performed its 15th close flyby of Jupiter. At the time, Juno was 7,425 miles (11,950 kilometers) from the planet's cloud tops, abo

Cassini Above Saturn and Rings

Digital Illustration of the Nine Planets of Our Solar System

Jupiter's Violent Storms

Illustration of Uranus

Trappist-1 is a red-dwarf star ÔÇô the most common variety ÔÇô located some 40 light-years away in Aquarius. In 2015, astronomers discovered that Trap...

This image, taken by NASA's Juno spacecraft's JunoCam imager, highlights the seventh of Jupiter's eight 'string of pearls,' massive counterclockwise rotating storms that appear as white ovals in the gas giants southern hemisphere.

This false-color view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft gazes toward the rings beyond Saturn's sunlit horizon. Along the limb (the planet's edge) at left can be seen a thin, detached haze. This haze vanishes toward the left side of the scene. Cassini will pass through Saturn's upper atmosphere during the final five orbits of the mission, before making a fateful plunge into Saturn on Sept. 15, 2017. The region through which the spacecraft will fly on those last orbits is well above the haze seen here, which is in Saturn's stratosphere. In fact, even when Cassini plunges toward Saturn to meet its fate, contact with the spacecraft is expected to be lost before it reaches the depth of this haze. This view is a false-color composite made using images taken in red, green and ultraviolet spectral filters. The images were obtained using the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 16, 2017, at a distance of about 777,000 miles (1.25 million kilometers) from Saturn. Image scale is about 4 mi

Rhea Transits Saturn

NASA's Voyager 1 took this photo of Jupiter Feb. 1, 1979. Voyager scientists saw that different colors in clouds around the Great Red Spot imply that the clouds swirl around the spot at varying altitudes.

NASA image of planets in outer space.

Saturn and Rhea

NASA's Juno spacecraft was a little more than one Earth diameter from Jupiter when it captured this mind-bending, color-enhanced view of the planet's tumultuous atmosphere. Jupiter completely fills the image, with only a hint of the terminator (where daylight fades to night) in the upper right corner, and no visible limb (the curved edge of the planet). Juno took this image of colorful, turbulent clouds in Jupiter's northern hemisphere on Dec. 16, 2017 at 9 43 a.m. PST (12 43 p.m. EST) from 8,292 miles (13,345 kilometers) above the tops of Jupiter's clouds, at a latitude of 48.9 degrees. The spatial scale in this image is 5.8 miles/pixel (9.3 kilometers/pixel).. Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran processed this image using data from the JunoCam imager.

Artist's depiction of a gas giant planet on a white background.

Digital Illustration of Planet Uranus

With giant Saturn hanging in the blackness and sheltering Cassini from the sun's blinding glare, the spacecraft viewed the rings as never before, revealing previously unknown faint rings and even glimpsing its home world.

Jupiter and Io, one of its moons, 1979. Artist: Unknown

Gas giant Jupiter hovering on a white back ground

Sun and the planets of our Solar system on starry space background. Image elements furnished by NASA.

Planets Compared

Titan's Thick Haze Layer

Radio Occultation: Unraveling Saturn's Rings

Planet with rings, computer illustration.

This striking image of Jupiter was captured by NASA's Juno spacecraft as it performed its eighth flyby of the gas giant planet. The image was taken on Sept. 1, 2017 at 2 58 p.m. PDT (5 58 p.m. EDT). At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was 4,707 miles (7,576 kilometers) from the tops of the clouds of the planet at a latitude of about -17.4 degrees. Citizen scientist Gerald Eichstädt processed this image using data from the JunoCam imager. Points of interest are Whale's Tail and Dan's Spot.

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