NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured an image of Venus shot through the rings of Saturn.
The image was taken in November while Cassini was in the shadow of Saturn, allowing Cassini to look in the direction of the sun and Venus, and take a backlit image of Saturn and its rings in a particular viewing geometry called "high solar phase".
This observing position reveals details about the rings and Saturn's atmosphere that cannot be seen in lower solar phase.
The vast distance between the planets means Venus appears as only a white speck near the centre of the image.
Another, taken in January, captures Venus just beyond the limb of Saturn and close to Saturn's G ring, a thin ring just beyond the main Saturnian rings. The diffuse E ring, which is outside the G ring and created by the spray of the moon Enceladus, is also visible.
