Seven more years of Saturn, folks. NASA announced yesterday that it was extending the Cassini mission until 2017, when the planet would be at the peak of summer in its northern hemisphere. The probe arrived in 2004, near the peak of winter in the northern hemisphere. The planet is currently near its equinox, so its rings, as they are pictured here, are dead-on to the Sun. The mission extension, at $60 million a year, will allow the probe to observe Saturn’s rings from all angles, and also afford more time to study the seasons on Titan, seen here casting a giant shadow.

Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute