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Nasa's Cassini spacecraft, which has been in orbit around Saturn since 30 June 2004, has returned stunning new images of the gas giant and its various moons.

Close-up views of Saturn's clouds, an amazing sunrise as well as several of its moons are revealed in unprecedented detail.

The pictures were released by the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (Ciclops).

Nasa's Cassini spacecraft has returned stunning new images of Saturn and its moons. Here the planet is seen circled by its rings nearly edge-on. The object lower right is the moon Tethys, while Mimas is a bit further up at the 4 o'clock position if you follow the rings

In one stunning image Saturn is seen lit up by the sun with its rings nearly edge-on. The shadow of the rings is also clearly seen near the south pole of the gas giant.

Another image showcases a close-up of Saturn's north pole, showing swirling clouds making their way around the planet.

And elsewhere, a new day on the planet is seen dawning as it emerges into light.

The planet rotates in 10 hours and 40 minutes, meaning its days and nights are much shorter than on Earth.

Equally remarkable are the colour mosaics of various moons released by the Cassini team.The global mosaics were produced using images taken by the Cassini spacecraft in its first ten years exploring the Saturnian system.

This view is looking towards the sunlit side of Saturn's rings from about 25 degrees above the ringplane. It too was taken at a distance of 1.1 million miles (1.8 million km), with the scale in the image being 67 miles (108km) per pixel

The fascinating moon Titan is seen in the background at the top right here, partially lit by the sun as small particles high in its atmosphere scatter the light of the distant Sun. In the foreground is Saturn from a distance of 1.1 million miles (1.8 million km)

This image shows the cloud dynamics on Saturn, which astronomers study to better understand fluid flows. This is useful for studying our own atmosphere, and possibly that of other planetary bodies as well. This view was taken from a distance of 1.1 million miles (1.8 million km)

Earlier this year, Cassini celebrated its tenth year in orbit around Saturn - the first and only spacecraft to circle the planet.

Since then it has made numerous groundbreaking discoveries, including lakes on the moon Titan and giant storms on Saturn.

The mission is jointly run by Nasa, Esa and the Italian Space Agency (Asi).

Its total cost is about £1.9 billion ($3.26 billion), of which the U.S. supplied 80 per cent, Europe 15 per cent and Italy 5 per cent.

It was launched on 18 October 1997 and, during its seven-year trip to Saturn, it flew by Venus, the Moon and Jupiter.

The highlight of its initial year at Saturn was arguably the release of the Huygens probe onto the surface of Titan.

On Christmas day 2004 this probe, 4.3 ft (1.3 metres) across, was released and, on 14 January 2005, it entered the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon Titan.

That same day it became the first spacecraft ever to touch down on a body in the outer solar system and, in the process, spotted surface features that indicated the presence of liquids.

Since then Titan has been studied in depth by Cassini, and in so doing it has revealed lakes and seas on its surface, in addition to its thick atmosphere.

It has also studied in depth many of Saturn's dozens of other moons.

Here we see a global, colour mosaic of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus. The yellow and magenta tones show the difference in thickness of surface deposits. The moon is covered in ice and might harbour a liquid ocean underground

This image shows the amazing world of Iapetus with a resolution of 400 metres per pixel. Iapetus is fascinating as it has a bizarre 'two-tone' colouration, in addition to a giant crater and a giant equatorial ridge that runs three quarters of the way around the moon

Cassini has sent back hundreds of gigabytes of scientific data, enabling the publication of more than 3,000 scientific reports.

The mission will come to a conclusion in 2017, when the spacecraft will no longer have enough fuel to maintain its orbit around Saturn. To prevent it accidentally crashing on and contaminating one of the moons, Nasa will send the spacecraft diving into the atmosphere of Saturn.

In the process the spacecraft will be crushed and destroyed, but not before it returns fascinating information about the gas giant's cloud tops.

This last task will also mark the end of an era; currently there is no future spacecraft planned to visit Saturn. With interest instead focusing on Mars, Jupiter and other moons like Europa, it may be some time before Saturn gets another mission of its own.

Some areas of the scientific community, though, are hoping form a mission to Titan. And they may just get their wish if, before its plunge into Saturn's atmosphere, Cassini spots something on the surface that piques the interest of the whole world.

The Cassini spacecraft (illustration shown) has been in orbit around Saturn since 30 June 2004. In 2017, when it runs out of fuel, it will be sent on a daring dive into the atmosphere of Saturn to gather data about the planet's atmosphere