Welcome at Saturn! Welcome at Saturn! At 880,000 miles (1.4 million kilometers) away, the Ringed Planet is seen against the Sun, as the ring is framing the gas giant. It just seems like we could hear some steady, low-pitched noise greeting us in the Saturnian world. It's an impressive view! It was taken last May 2005 by the collaborative, NASA/European Space Agency (ESA)/Italian Space Agency Cassini mission. The Cassini spacecraft is an orbiter bound to tour the Saturnian system during 4 years until 2008, in the view of performing the same comprehensive study at Saturn than mission Galileo had performed at Jupiter. Saturn is lying 890 million miles (1.45 billion kilometers) away from the Sun. Its ring is making of it one of the marvels of the solar system. Saturn is a gas giant, that is a planet which formed by accretion of gas layers around a small, rocky core. Saturn is similar to Jupiter, as both are part of a same family with Uranus and Neptune. picture site 'Amateur Astronomy' based on a picture NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute