Almost nine years after it swung into orbit, NASA's Cassini spacecraft continues to take spectacular images of Saturn and its moons. The $3.3 billion mission was originally scheduled to end in 2008. But the space agency has twice extended Cassini's work. The probe will continue to explore the Saturnian system well into 2017. Here is a sample of images taken since last July and processed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
Cassini captured this image of Saturn's F Ring. NASA says, "Most of the features seen here are believed to be due to the ring's interactions with its shepherd moons or with small moonlets embedded within the ring itself."