Amateur snaps spectacular photo of Saturn's rings

An amazing view of all of Saturn and its rings, assembled by Gordan Ugarkovic. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/G. Ugarkovic)

An amazing new view of Saturn, created by amateur image processer Gordan Ugarkovic, shows the planet and its rings in all their glory.

Ugarkovic, a Croatian computer programmer, assembled the incredible image from 36 shots snapped by the Cassini spacecraft on Oct. 10. He combined a dozen each of red, green  and blue filter images into the stunning mosaic.

"I try to be measured in my praise for spacecraft images," wrote Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society, the first to spot the image in Ugarkovic's Flickr stream. "But this enormous mosaic showing the flattened globe of Saturn floating among the complete disk of its rings must surely be counted among the great images of the Cassini mission."

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been in orbit around Saturn for almost nine years. It is expected to study the ringed planet and its moons until 2017.