Behemoth of the Night Sky

In 1610 Galileo only mused the possibility of this vista.....
In 1655 Christiaan Huygens only assumed that there must be more...
in 1675 Giovanni Domenico Cassini rendered possible the idea that there was in fact more...

And through the potent minds of many others between 'then' and 'now' we have the flight of Cassini, in Giovanni's honour, taking images that would have rendered these and myriad others speechless.

Seen edge-on through the rings of Saturn are two moons Titan (large) and Enceladus. If you take this to a high enough resolution, cryovolcanos become visible in the southern hemisphere (bottom...north is 'up'). Titan is the only known and suggestively proven satellite in our solar system to support a gaseous atmosphere. Spurious thoughts of life have arisen, not only recently, and this majestic planet-of-a-planet harbours much more potential research, interest and mystery.

This image is a rarely portrayed one, leave alone the fact that it was no imaged until 2006, and one that lends curiosity to the size and perplexity of our own solar system.

When before have we seen a waxing crescent moon of another planet? I dare say it would be rare if any.

And all this from a cloud of dust, gas and a little pinch of physics and chemistry many billions of years ago. Beautiful.