Now that the Cassini-Huygens probe has successfully reached Saturn, we’re getting even more of a grand tour of the solar system–and the Internet brings that closer to us.

Before, with Voyager and Viking, we had to wait for TV or magazines to print the images, and it was all quite short on the kind of details a real space nut like myself might want. But with the Internet, we now have a front-row view of mission control, with access to far more information than before.

With both the Spirit & Opportunity rovers and the Cassini-Huygens probe, we can see results as they come in. NASA has done the best job, not only giving us access to press releases, but to the raw images as they arrive from Saturn–and the same is true for the Mars missions as well. Now you can see far more than the media decides to print, and you can see it faster.

Below is an example: a recent view of Iapetus, though at a distance. Iapetus is a stunning moon, half of it far darker than the other. The Cassini view in B&W below almost looks like it’s half in shadow, but that’s the dark half, in sunlight–almost like a huge Tao symbol in the sky. And below that is another image accessed from NASA, a much clearer image of Iapetus from the Voyager missions–again, all available on their site.

At bottom is a great image of Saturn–click on the image to see the spectacular full-sized view.