The first true-color images of Saturn taken during Cassini's close encounter are coming in — and they're beautiful!

A processed, true-color image of Saturn's polar vortex based on photos taken by Cassini on April 26, 2017 during the spacecraft's first dive between the planet and its rings. (Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Sophia Nasr) We've already been treated to spectacular black and white closeup images of Saturn, beamed home to Earth by the Cassini spacecraft after it dove between the planet and its rings. Now, we're getting to see what things look like in true color. Among the first of these images is the one above, processed by Sophia Nasr, an astro-particle physicist working on dark matter. She will begin her PhD studies in physics at UC Irvine in September 2017. (For her full bio, see the end of this post.) I first spotted Nasr's image on Twitter, where she may be posting more. You can find her here: https://twitter.com/Pharaoness

SEE ALSO: Cassini shoots through the gap between Saturn and its rings, returning the closest views ever of the planet