Pluto has been hogging a lot of the attention recently thanks to NASA's extraordinary New Horizons mission. However we can't forget the other ongoing ambitious space missions and the valuable things they are telling us about our solar system and beyond.

Case in point is a stunning photograph of Saturn that has just been released. It was captured as part of the Cassini mission - a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency.

The image was taken around 1 million kilometres away from the solar system's second largest planet, and truly captures the sheer scale and majesty of the planet, its rings and two of its many moons (Dione and Mimas). 

NASA explains, "although certainly large enough to be noticeable, moons like Mimas (396 kilometers across) and Dione (1123 kilometers across) are tiny compared to Saturn (120,700 kilometers across). Even the enormous moon Titan (5,150 kilometers across) is dwarfed by the giant planet.

"This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about one degree of the ring plane," the agency explains.

For reference, Saturn has a diameter of more than 120,000 km - almost ten times that of Earth.

The Cassini mission has been examining Saturn and its moons since 2004, and its mission was extended until 2017. You can see more of the stunning photographs from the mission here.