NASA-International Space Station

An astonishing view of Saturn from NASA's Cassini spacecraft has made Time Magazine's 2009 "Year in Pictures."The photo, released in September and dubbed "The Rite of Spring," was the first up close view from a spacecraft from Earth of Saturn's equinox, when the sun's disk is openly overhead at Saturn's equator. That sun angle illuminates the gas giant's eminent rings edge-on, opening up a new perspective.

As Cassini imaging team leader Carolyn Porco tells Time, "The geometry discovered structures and phenomena in the rings we had never seen before. We saw this famous embellishment spring from two dimensions into three, with some ring structures soaring as high as the Rocky Mountains. It made me sense blessed." The spectacle occurs twice during each orbit Saturn makes around the sun, which takes about 10,759 Earth days, or about 29.7 Earth years. Earth experiences a similar equinox occurrence twice a year; the autumnal equinox will happen Sept. 22, when the sun will shine directly over Earth's equator.

For about a week, scientists used the Cassini orbiter to look at puffy parts of Saturn's rings trapped in white glare from the low-angle lighting. Scientists have identified about vertical clumps sticking out of the rings in a handful of places, but they could not directly measure the height and breadth of the undulations and ridges until Saturn's equinox exposed their shadows. "It's similar to putting on 3-D glasses and seeing the third dimension for the first time," said Bob Pappalardo, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "This is amongst the most important events Cassini has shown us."

Time isn't the only journal recognizing NASA for outstanding imagery this year:

• The Boston Globe selected four NASA images for its three-part gallery, together with the launch of Ares 1-X.

• National Geographic's "Top Ten Space Pictures" of the year showcases pictures of Mars, Saturn and colorful views of the cosmos from Hubble and Chandra.

• The Wall Street Journal marks the passing of aeronautics pioneer Richard T. Whitcomb in the "Remembrances" part of its photo retrospective.

• USA Today features the December launch of WISE.

• Britain's Telegraph Web site offers a year in space gallery with numerous images from Hubble and other NASA spacecraft.

• Popular Science features NASA a dozen times in its gallery "The Year's Most Amazing Scientific Images," together with an Ares rocket test and a shot from NASA photographer Bill Ingalls of the April landing of the Soyuz spacecraft with the Expedition 18 crew from the International Space Station.