With the help of the Cassini spacecraft - which observing Saturn and its moons and rings ever since its 2004 entry in the planet's orbit - NASA scientists have been able to capture some breathtakingly-beautiful pictures during the planet's equinox last month.

The pictures reveal that the rings of Saturn are not completely flat, as believed thus far, but have extremely high ruffles on their surface. It was largely due to the atypical lighting effects, created during the planet's equinox, that the undulations and dust clouds came to fore in the spectacular images.

With regard to the unusual lighting phenomenon that had the sunlight hitting Saturn's rings precisely edge-on, scientists opine that it is a step forward in the direction of better understanding by researchers not only about how old Saturn's distinctive rings are, but also about how they are evolving.

The magnificent equinox occurs twice during Saturn's each orbital journey around the sun. Since Saturn's orbital cycle takes nearly 10,759 Earth days, or about 30 Earth years, the recent images mark the first time the scientists managed to look closely at the rings.

Commenting on the spectacle, Bob Pappalardo, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said: "It's like putting on 3-D glasses and seeing the third dimension for the first time. This is among the most important events Cassini has shown us."