A few days ago, Phil Plait wrote a pretty righteous post about the scale of Saturn. It was swag as all Cosmic get out, but a reader of Bad Astronomy took it a step further and showed how North America would compare size-wise.

Hit the jump to behold.

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Check out the rings of Saturn, managing to levitate both Titan and Dione. Well, in my mind. In my mind magical rings have magical powers and levitate the Space-Objects. The reality is a bit less sexy, but sexy nonetheless.

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Check out this super bombad picture of Titan taken by Cassini back in August. You can see surface detail of the lovely rock, and it’s all thanks to the powers of infrared.

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Check out this picture of Saturn and its rings as captured by Cassini. Man, that Cassini is legit. So many delicious pictures. Anyways, did you know you can measure the passage of time on Saturn by the shadows its rings cast? I didn’t either.

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(Click image to enlarge. Via.)

Back in 2009, Cassini caught Saturn and five of its moons in one gorgeous line-up. Well done, Cassini.

So what exactly is going on in this picture?

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My lust for autumnal brews   is absolutely insatiable, transforming me into an ethanol Donkey Kong. Stay out of my way, other beers, or you’re liable to get a barrel thrown off your fucking neck! I’m serious, man! Watch out! The spell has been cast, and only orange-labeled harvest-intoxicants will lubricate my arid braincells properly!

Enjoying a recess from His reaping, the mighty Saturn gazes down into the terrestrial realm. Humans and their dominions, ants and their hills. It’s rustic but aspiring, unrealized but bursting with potential. The brisk breeze cools Saturn’s glistening brow and he smiles upon us in gratitude,   for we raise our glasses in his honor. He raises his chalice, teeming with the syrups and elixirs and sweet ambrosial dreams, and reciprocates.

Gods and Men, united in spirits.

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This picture is absolutely bananas. Banana cakes even. Check out that storm on Saturn. It’s reaching all the way around the entire planet.  That like, makes it big, right? You have no damn idea.

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I never knew this, but all of Saturn’s moons and rings orbit the planet on the same plane. It happens through yet another wonder of our glorious universal laws-thingies.

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Enlarge. | Via.

A couple of days ago, Cassini zipped past Helene. It was a relatively close to this moon of Saturn, and it snapped this sexy picture. Relatively close being 4,300 miles, which is like nothing in cosmic-universeo-wunder-terms.

The spacecraft Cassini has been rocking around Saturn for seven years, taking thousands of pictures and making geeks like me swoon. Apparent fellow geek and talented videographer  Chris Abbas took all the images and make a video out of it, set to some fittingly haunting Nine Inch Nails.

Hit the jump to check it out.

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