Saturn and its rings Cassini image The rings are silhouetted against the partially sunlit planet This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about degrees below the ring plane Saturn is a large gas giant planet with a ring system that consists of thousands of chunks of rock and ice This view from a distance of around one million kilometres was taken in green light The image was obtained on January with the wideangle camera of Cassinis Imaging Science Subsystem ISS The Cassini spacecraft has been surveying the Saturnian system since with its mission scheduled to end in September NasaJplCaltechSpace Science InstituteScience Photo Library