"There is not perhaps another object in the heavens that presents us with such a variety of extraordinary phenomena as the planet Saturn," William Herschel once remarked. "It is a magnificent globe, encompassed by a stupendous double ring; attended by seven satellites; ornamented with equatorial belts; compressed at the poles; turning upon its axis; mutually eclipsing its ring and satellites, and eclipsed by them."

These words, we should note, were written by the great astronomer after he had observed the planet using only basic 18th- and 19th-century telescopes. Modern visions of the solar system's second-largest planet, mostly obtained from space probes, have revealed a world of far greater complexity and beauty. And of all these new views of Saturn, this version, created from photographs taken by the space probe Cassini on 10 October, ranks as one of the most breathtaking images of any planet created by astronomers. Herschel would have been overwhelmed.

A total of 36 photographs were taken to create this image – a dozen through red filters, a dozen through green, and a dozen through blue – to produce the best possible approximation to the giant planet's true colour. The raw files of these digital photographs were then combined by amateur astronomer Gordan Ugarkovic to produce this single, stunning image. Among the startling details displayed are bands running round the planet. These are clouds on top of Saturn's atmosphere while the hexagonal feature over its north pole is a storm that measures 1,250 miles in diameter and is blasted by winds of up to 330mph.

However, it is those "stupendous" rings that give Saturn its distinctive, graceful appearance. Herschel noted that he could see a double ring. As can be seen here, the reality is even more striking and complicated. Saturn has a total of seven ring groups which are in turn made up of thousands of smaller rings. Indeed, it is not known how numerous are the rings – which may be the remains of an old moon that disintegrated or may be made up of material that failed to coalesce into a moon.

As for Saturn's existing moons, they have also proved to be far more numerous and complex than the seven noted by Herschel. The planet is now reckoned to have 62 major moons, although only 53 of these have been named as yet. One moon, Titan, is bigger than the planet Mercury and has a dense nitrogen-rich atmosphere and a surface spattered with lakes of complex hydrocarbon liquids. Another moon, Enceladus, emits jets of water vapour and may possess an ocean under its south pole. This is a rich, complex series of worlds: virtually a miniature solar system in its own right.

Cassini, made by the US, reached Saturn in 2004. It dropped a small lander probe, Huygens, which was built by Europe, on Titan while the main mothership has since returned thousands of stunning photographs of the planet and its moons, of which this image is one of the best. Cassini was slated to be switched off in 2008 but was recently given a reprieve that will allow astronomers to continue to study the planet until at least 2017, a move welcomed widely by scientists. "This extension is important because there is so much still to be learned at Saturn," says Bob Mitchell, Cassini programme manager. "This planet is full of secrets, and it doesn't give them up easily."