There are certain things that you learn in a newsroom when the space reporter is away on vacation. One of them is that Saturn has a tiny moon shaped like a dumpling.
The moon, Atlas, is just 19 miles across, and orbits the large planet outside of its "A ring" -- the outermost of the planet's main rings, NASA said.
SEE ALSO:Amazing Photo Shows Saturn Dwarfing Tiny MoonOn April 12, NASA's Cassini spacecraft took these pictures of the celestial dumpling, er, I mean moon, Atlas.
The spacecraft whizzed by the moon at a distance of about 7,000 miles, making these the closest pictures ever taken of Atlas. Scientists hope the images will help them better understand the moon's shape and geology.
In addition to the still images, NASA released an animation of the flyby, which just makes me even hungrier.