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).

Photo by Voyager 1 (JPL) Jupiter, its Great Red Spot and three of its four largest satellites are visible in this photo taken Feb 5, 1979 by Voyager 1. The spacecraft was 28.4 million kilomters (17.5 million miles) from the planet at the time. The inner-most large satellite, Io, can be seen against Jupiter's disk. Io is distinguished by its bright, brown-yellow surface. To the right of Jupiter is the satellite Europa, also very bright but with fainter surface markings. The darkest satellite, Callisto (still nearly twice as bright as Earth's Moon), is barely visible at the bottom left of the picture. Callisto shows a bright patch in its northern hemisphere. All tThree orbit Jupiter in the equatorial plane, and appear in their present position because Voyageris above the plane. All three satellites show the same face to Jupiter always -- just as Earth's Moon always shows us the same face. In this photo we see the sides of the satellites that always face away from the planet. Jupiter's co

Neptune Glows a Brilliant Blue in the Night Sky Seen by Voyager 2

A south tropical disturbance has just passed Jupiter's iconic Great Red Spot and is captured stealing threads of orange haze from the Great Red Spot in this series of color-enhanced images from NASA's Juno spacecraft. From left to right, this sequence of images was taken between 2 57 a.m. and 3 36 a.m. PDT (5 57 a.m. and 6 36 a.m. EDT) on April 1, 2018, as the spacecraft performed its 12th close flyby of Jupiter. Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran created this image using data from the spacecraft's JunoCam imager.

An artist's concept inspired by recent discoveries on Europa of regions that look very much like pack-ice on Earth's polar seas during spring thaws

Artist's concept of a cold Neptune.

. NASA's Juno Mission Spots Two Jovian Moons. On Nov. 29, 2021, NASA's Juno mission completed its 38th close flyby of Jupiter. As the spacecraft sped low over the giant planet's cloud tops, its JunoCam instrument captured this look at two of Jupiter's largest moons. In the foreground, hurricane-like spiral wind patterns called vortices can be seen spinning in the planet's north polar region. These powerful storms can be over 30 miles (50 kilometers) in height and hundreds of miles across. Below Jupiter's curving horizon, two Jovian moons make an appearance Callisto (below) and Io (above). Juno will make close flybys of Io in December 2023 and February 2024, the first such close encounters with this intriguing moon in over two decades. Io is the most volcanic body in our solar system, and its eruptions leave a trail of material behind that both fills Jupiter's magnetosphere and creates a torus of gas and dust around Jupiter. During the flybys, Juno will study Io's volcanoes and geology,

Planet jupiter, computer illustration.

Saturn, illustration

Gliese 667 Cc, a super-Earth exoplanet.

A series of Hubble Space Telescope images, captured from 1996 to 2000, show Saturn's rings open up from just past edge-on to nearly fully open as it moves from autumn towards winter in its Northern Hemisphere.

July 19, 2013, the Cassini spacecraft slipped into Saturn's shadow and turned to image the planet, seven of its moons, its inner rings and Earth. With the sun's powerful and potentially damaging rays eclipsed by Saturn itself, Cassini's on-board cameras were able to take advantage of this unique viewing geometry. They acquired a panoramic mosaic of the Saturn system that allows scientists to see details in the rings and throughout the system as they are backlit by the sun.

Saturn's northern storm marches through the planet's atmosphere in the top right of this false-color mosaic from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Artwork Pioneer 10 mission artwork depicts Jupiter and it's moons (Used in NASA SP-349)

Artist's concept showing how Uranus might look from a position in space several hundred thousand miles above its south pole

This set of images from NASA's Cassini mission shows how the gravitational pull of Saturn affects the amount of spray coming from jets at the active moon Enceladus.

This artist's concept animation shows a brown dwarf with bands of clouds, thought to resemble those seen on Neptune and the other outer planets in the solar system. By using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have found that the varying glow of brown dwarfs over time can be explained by bands of patchy clouds rotating at different speeds. Videos are available at

Beautiful Saturn, as Seen by Hubble Space Telecope

Voyager 1 passed the Saturnian system in November 1980; nine months later Voyager 2 passed through this same system. The ensuing scientific discoveries were unprecedented with regards to the rings around Saturn and its satellite's chemical makeup. Pictured are Saturn (shown with rings), Dione (forefront), Tethys and Mimas (lower right), Enceladus and Rhea (upper left) and Titan in distant orbit (upper right).

Exoplanet Kepler 1701b and its exomoon

NASA's Juno spacecraft skimmed the upper wisps of Jupiter's atmosphere when JunoCam snapped this image on Feb. 2, 2017. from an altitude of about 9,000 miles (14,500 kilometers) above the giant planet's swirling cloudtops.

Full view of Saturn and her rings, 1980. Artist: Unknown

Saturn System Montage

. iss068e054896 (Feb. 17, 2023) - The last rays of an orbital sunset fade into the Earth's atmosphere in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 269 miles above the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Falkland Islands, or the Islas Malvinas.

Jupiter As Seen By The Voyager Spacecraft (A Star Bacground Has Been Added By An Artist).

This is how auroras on Jupiter's north pole might look from a distance of about a quarter million miles.

This image captures swirling cloud belts and tumultuous vortices within Jupiter's northern hemisphere. NASA's Juno spacecraft took this color-enhanced image at 10 23 p.m. PDT on May 23, 2018 (1 23 a.m. EDT on May 24), as the spacecraft performed its 13th close flyby of Jupiter. At the time, Juno was about 9,600 miles (15,500 kilometers) from the planet's cloud tops, above a northern latitude of 56 degrees. The region seen here is somewhat chaotic and turbulent, given the various swirling cloud formations. In general, the darker cloud material is deeper in Jupiter's atmosphere, while bright cloud material is high. The bright clouds are most likely ammonia or ammonia and water, mixed with a sprinkling of unknown chemical ingredients. A bright oval at bottom center stands out in the scene. This feature appears uniformly white in ground-based telescope observations. However, with JunoCam we can observe the fine-scale structure within this weather system, including additional structures wit

Rainbow on the Rings

Mimas drifts along in its orbit against the azure backdrop of Saturn's northern latitudes in this true color view. The long, dark lines on the atmosphere are shadows cast by the planet's rings. Saturn's northern hemisphere is presently relatively cloud-free, and rays of sunlight take a long path through the atmosphere. This results in sunlight being scattered at shorter (bluer) wavelengths, thus giving the northernmost latitudes their bluish appearance at visible wavelengths. At the bottom, cr

. A Portrait of Planet and Moon NASA's Juno Mission Captures Jupiter and Io Together. Just hours before NASA's Juno mission completed its 53rd close flyby of Jupiter on July 31, 2023, the spacecraft sped past the planet's volcanic moon Io and captured this dramatic view of both bodies in the same frame. The surface of Io, the most volcanically active world in the solar system, is marked by hundreds of volcanoes that regularly erupt with molten lava and sulfurous gases. Juno has provided scientists with the closest looks at Io since 2007, and the spacecraft will gather additional images and data from its suite of scientific instruments during even closer passes in late 2023 and early 2024. To create this image, citizen scientist Alain Mirón Velázquez processed a raw image from the JunoCam instrument, enhancing the contrast, color, and sharpness. At the time the raw image was taken on July 30, 2023, Juno was about 32,170 miles (about 51,770 kilometers) from Io, and about 245,000 miles (a

Intricate swirls in Jupiter's volatile northern hemisphere are captured in this color-enhanced image from NASA's Juno spacecraft. Bursts of bright-white pop-up clouds appear scattered throughout the scene, with some visibly casting shadows on the neighboring cloud layers beneath them. Juno scientists are using shadows to determine the distances between cloud layers in Jupiter's atmosphere, which provide clues to their composition and origin. This image was taken at 10 27 p.m. PDT on May 23, 2018 (1 27 a.m. EDT on May 24) as the spacecraft performed its 13th close flyby of Jupiter. At the time, Juno was about 7,050 miles (11,350 kilometers) from the planet's cloud tops, above a northern latitude of approximately 49 degrees. Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran created this image using data from the spacecraft's JunoCam imager.

In these images obtained by amateur astronomers, Jupiter can be seen 'losing' a brown-colored belt south of the equator called the South Equatorial Belt (SEB) from 2009 to 2010.

Photo Artwork composite by JPL This depiction of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacting Jupiter is shown from several perspectives. IMAGE C is shown from the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which may observe the event from its unique position at the outer reaches of the solar system. For visual appeal, most of the large cometary fragments are shown close to one another in this image. At the time of Jupiter impact, the fragments will be separated from one another by serveral times the distances shown. This image was created by D.A. Seal of JPL's Mission Design Section using orbital computations provIded by P.W. Chodas and D.K. Yeomans of JPL's Navigation Section.

This view from NASA's Juno spacecraft captures colorful, intricate patterns in a jet stream region of Jupiter's northern hemisphere known as Jet N3. Jupiter's cloud tops do not form a simple, flat surface. Data from Juno helped scientists discover that the swirling bands in the atmosphere extend deep into the planet, to a depth of about 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers). At center right, a patch of bright, high-altitude pop-up clouds rises above the surrounding atmosphere. Citizen scientist Gerald Eichstädt created this enhanced-color image using data from the spacecraft's JunoCam imager. The original image was taken on May 29, 2019, at 1 01 a.m. PDT (4 01 a.m. EDT) as the Juno spacecraft performed its 20th close flyby of Jupiter. At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was about 6,000 miles (9,700 kilometers) from the tops of the clouds, at a latitude of 39 degrees north. PIA23439 - Enhanced image by Gerald Eichstädt based on images provided courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

An artist's depiction of a ringed gas giant planet surrounded by it's moons. The view is from the surface of one of the rocky airless moons.

This false color photograph of Neptune was made from Voyager 2 images taken through three filters: blue, green, and a filter that passes light at a wavelength that is absorbed by methane gas.

Photo Artwork composite by JPL This depiction of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacting Jupiter is shown from several perspectives. IMAGE B shows the perspective from Galileo spacecraft which can observe the impact point directly. For visual appeal, most of the large cometary fragments are shown close to one another in this image. At the time of Jupiter impact, the fragments will be separated from one another by serveral times the distances shown. This image was created by D.A. Seal of JPL's Mission Design Section using orbital computations provIded by P.W. Chodas and D.K. Yeomans of JPL's Navigation Section.

Cool and icy Dione floats in front of giant Saturn bedecked in a dazzling array of colors

Uranus and moons, illustration

This view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft look toward the south polar region of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, and show a depression within the moon's orange and blue haze layers near the south pole.

Composite image depicting the planets in the terrestrial Solar System.

On March 13, 2006 Cassini's narrow-angle camera captured this look at Saturn and its rings, seen here nearly edge on. The frame also features Mimas and tiny Janus (above the rings), and Tethys (below the rings). Above and below the rings is mostly a matter of perspective here. All three moons and the rings orbit Saturn in roughly the same plane. The night side of Mimas is gently illuminated by Saturnshine, sunlight reflected from the planet's cloud tops. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view, taken at a distance of approximately 1.7 million miles (2.7 million kilometers) from Saturn. The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017.

Pseudo-true color mosaic of a belt-zone boundary near Jupiter's equator. The images that make up the four quadrants of this mosaic were taken within a few minutes of each other by NASA's Galileo orbiter.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft takes full advantage of the sunlight to capture these amazing views of the north polar hexagon and myriad storms, large and small, that comprise the weather systems in the polar region.

Illustration of Uranus

Distant Saturn Sighting

This contrast enhanced color picture of Neptune was acquired by NASA's Voyager 2 on Aug. 14, 1989. As Voyager 2 approached Neptune, rapidly increasing image resolution is revealed striking new details. Bright, wispy clouds are seen overlying the Great Dar

Saturn's rings are perhaps the most recognized feature of any world in our solar system. Cassini spent more than a decade examining them more closely than any spacecraft before it. The rings are made mostly of particles of water ice that range in size from smaller than a grain of sand to as large as mountains. The ring system extends up to 175,000 miles (282,000 kilometers) from the planet, but for all their immense width, the rings are razor-thin, about 30 feet (10 meters) thick in most places. From the right angle you can see straight through the rings, as in this natural-color view that looks from south to north. Cassini obtained the images that comprise this mosaic on April 25, 2007, at a distance of approximately 450,000 miles (725,000 kilometers) from Saturn. The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017.

This trick that the planet is looking back at you is actually a Hubble treat An eerie, close-up view of Jupiter, the biggest planet in our solar system. Hubble was monitoring changes in Jupiters immense Great Red Spot (GRS) storm on April 21, 2014, when the shadow of the Jovian moon, Ganymede, swept across the center of the storm. This gave the giant planet the uncanny appearance of having a pupil in the center of a 10,000 mile-diameter “eye.” For a moment, Jupiter “stared” back at Hubble like a one-eyed giant Cyclops.

This false-color mosaic, made from infrared data collected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, reveals the differences in the composition of surface materials around hydrocarbon lakes at Titan, Saturn's largest moon.

Jupiter's Northern Hemisphere in False Color (Time Set 1)

The globe of Saturn, seen here in natural color, is reminiscent of a holiday ornament in this wide-angle view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

As NASA's Juno spacecraft closed in on Jupiter for its Aug. 27, 2016 pass, its view grew sharper and fine details in the north polar region became increasingly visible.

Digital Illustration of the Size and Orbit of the Newly Discovered Tenth Planet of Our Solar System

NASA image of planets in outer space.

Vintage Photograph. Saturns majestic rings and moons captured in stunning detail.

Artist's concept of a golden planet with yellow rings.

Small Particles in Ring A

. NASA's Juno Mission Captures Lightning On Jupiter. In this view of a vortex near Jupiter's north pole, NASA's Juno mission observed the glow from a bolt of lightning. On Earth, lightning bolts originate from water clouds, and happen most frequently near the equator, while on Jupiter lightning likely also occurs in clouds containing an ammonia-water solution, and can be seen most often near the poles. In the coming months, Juno's orbits will repeatedly take it close to Jupiter as the spacecraft passes over the giant planet's night side, which will provide even more opportunities for Juno's suite of science instruments to catch lightning in the act. Juno captured this view as Juno completed its 31st close flyby of Jupiter on Dec. 30, 2020. In 2022, Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill processed the image from raw data from the JunoCam instrument aboard the spacecraft. At the time the raw image was taken, Juno was about 19,900 miles (32,000 kilometers) above Jupiter's cloud tops, at a latitu

This image captures the dynamic nature of Jupiter's northern temperate belt. The view reveals a white, oval-shaped anticyclonic storm called WS-4. NASA's Juno spacecraft took this color-enhanced image on April 1 at 2 38 a.m. PST (5 38 a.m. EST) during its 12th close flyby of the gas giant planet. At the time, the spacecraft was 4,087 miles (6,577 kilometers) from the tops of Jupiter's clouds at 35.6 degrees north latitude. This image was created by citizen scientist Emma Walimaki using data from the JunoCam imager on NASA's Juno spacecraft.

Photo Artwork composite by JPL This depiction of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacting Jupiter is shown from several perspectives. IMAGE A is shown from the perspective of Earth based observers. IMAGE B shows the perspective from Galileo spacecraft which can observe the impact point directly. IMAGE C is shown from the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which may observe the event from its unique position at the outer reaches of the solar system. IMAGE D depicts a generic view from Jupiter's south pole. For visual appeal, most of the large cometary fragments are shown close to one another in this image. At the time of Jupiter impact, the fragments will be separated from one another by serveral times the distances shown. This image was created by D.A. Seal of JPL's Mission Design Section using orbital computations provIded by P.W. Chodas and D.K. Yeomans of JPL's Navigation Section.

Planet Saturn. Solar system. Cosmos art. Elements of this image furnished by NASA

A recent Hubble Space Telescope (HST) view reveals Uranus surrounded by its 4 major rings and 10 of its 17 known satellites

NASA's Voyager 2 captured this high resolution color image, taken 2 hours before closest approach, providing obvious evidence of vertical relief in Neptune's bright cloud streaks.

The three mosaics shown here were composed with data from Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer taken during the last three Titan flybys

This Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 image of Uranus, taken in November 2018, reveals a vast, bright stormy cloud cap across the planet's north pole.

Range 34 million km. ( 21.1 million miles) P-22993C This Voyager 1 photograph of Saturn was taken on the last day it could be captured within a single narrow angle camera frame as the spacecraft neared the planet for it's closest approach on Nov. 12, 1980. Dione, one of Saturn's innermost satellites, appears as three color spots just below the planet's south pole. An abundance of previously unseen detail is apparent in the rings. For example, a gap in the dark, innermst ring, C-ring or Crepe Ring, is clearly shown. Also, material is seen inside the relatively wide Cassini Division, seperating the middle, B-ring from the outermost ring, the A-ring. The Encke division is shown near the outer edge of A-ring. The detail in the ring's shadows cast on the planet is of particular interest. The broad dark band near the equator is the shadow of B-ring. The thinner, brighter line just to the south is the shadow of the less dense A-ring.

Titan's atmosphere makes Saturn's largest moon look like a fuzzy orange ball in this natural color view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Titan's north polar hood is visible at top, and a faint blue haze also can be detected above the south pole at bottom.

The Cassini spacecraft looks toward Rhea, Saturn's second-largest moon

Hubble Views Ancient Storm in the Atmosphere of Jupiter - April, 1997

This image was taken at 7 21 p.m. PDT (10 21 p.m. EDT) on Sept. 6, 2018, as the spacecraft performed its 15th close flyby of Jupiter. The version of the image on the left side shows Jupiter in approximate true color, while the same image on the right has been processed to bring out detail close to the terminator and reveals four of the five southern circumpolar cyclones plus the cyclone in the center. Citizen scientist Björn Jónsson created this image using data from the spacecraft's JunoCam imager.

Saturn and its moons, with labels.

The Sun and planets of our solar system.

Three of the TRAPPIST-1 planets dwell in their star's so-called 'habitable zone,' shown in green. This is the band around the star where temperatures are just right, not too hot, not too cold, for liquid water to pool on the surface of an Earth-like world

Looking on the Brightside of Titan

JunoCam Captures a Northern Jet on Jupiter. This image of a jet in Jupiter's atmosphere was taken by the JunoCam public engagement camera aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft on May 23, 2022. Jupiter's atmosphere is organized into belts and zones, separated by jets, which are associated with turbulence along belt-zone boundaries, leading to chaotic regions of multicolored clouds. In this image, the color in these two regions has been enhanced to bring out detail and show the different layers of cloud decks. Juno's orbit around Jupiter changes every time the spacecraft passes the giant planet, with the point of closest approach - the perijove, or PJ - moving steadily northward. As the perijove changes, the resolution of images taken in the northern hemisphere steadily increases. This image of Jet N3 was acquired on PJ42, Juno's 42nd pass by Jupiter, at 41.6 degrees north from an altitude of 2,361 miles (3,800 kilometers). It shows features as small as 1.6 miles (2.6 kilometers) across. Citizen

Pioneer-Venus Replica of Venus de Milo

The planet Jupiter shines in front of hundreds of stars.

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

Photograph of the planet Neptune taken through the green and orange filters on the Voyager 2. Dated 1989

Artist's concept of Saturn and it's moon Tethys.

Surface of blue pink soap bubble, close-up

Artist's concept of Uranus and its planetary rings.

Surface of soap bubbles, close-up

Neptune, computer artwork.

. ARC-1994-AC94-0353-4

Surface of soap bubbles, close-up

Range 2.7 million miles (1.7 million miles) P-29497C Tis Voyager 2, false color composite of Uranus demonstrates the usefulness of special filters in the Voyager cameras for revealing the presence of high altitude hazes in Uranus' atmosphere. The picture is a composite of images obtained through the single orange and two methane filters of Voyager's wide angle camera. Orange, short wavelength and long wavelength methane images are displayed, retrospectively, as blue, green, and orange. The pink area centered on the pole is due to the presence of hazes high in the atmosphere that reflect the light before it has traversed a long enough path through the atmosphere to suffer absorbtion by methane gas. The bluest region at mid-latitude represent the most haze free regions on Uranus, thus, deeper cloud levels can be detected in these areas.

Saturn's B and C-rings

What does Earth look like when viewed from Mars At the time, Mars and the orbiting camera were 139 million kilometers (86 million miles) from Earth and almost 1 billion kilometers (nearly 600 million miles) from Jupiter.

South Polar Map of Jupiter As Seen By Cassini

Hubble Images Reveal Jupiter's Auroras

Brown dwarfs are more massive than planets but not quite as massive as stars. Generally speaking, they have between 13 and 80 times the mass of Jupiter. A brown dwarf becomes a star if its core pressure gets high enough to start nuclear fusion.

Uranus And Moons Uranus and Moons Copyright: xrobin2bx

Probing Storm Activity on Jupiter

Photographs of the planet Jupiter taken by the Hubble Telescope. The upper atmospheric winds are revealed in ultraviolet images. Dated 20th century

Hubble Views Ancient Storm in the Atmosphere of Jupiter - Montage

Quartz. minerals

Researchers are brewing up icy, organic concoctions in the lab to mimic materials at the edge of our solar system and beyond. The lab is shown at right, and a very young solar system, with its swirling planet-forming disk is at left.

This artist's conception compares the KOI-961 planetary system to Jupiter and the largest four of its many moons. The KOI-961 planetary system hosts the three smallest planets known to orbit a star beyond our sun.

of 2