Thanks to unmanned spacecraft, we've come to know better the planets within our solar system. NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been exploring Saturn, its impressive ring system and many moons since 2004. In the past decade, the Mars rovers have sent back images of a red planet hinting of frozen water and possibly past life. And the Voyager I and II spacecrafts launched in the late 1970s, helped us see, for the first time, the outer planets Uranus and Neptune. AAAS member Michael Benson, a multimedia artist, takes the raw image data from these space missions and digitally processes it to create large-format landscapes. The results are nothing short of spectacular. We get to see in "true color" what our eyes would see if we were on board one of these probes on a flyby of our solar system.

In this audio slidehow, Benson takes us on a journey to the planets, and gives us some insights into how he processes the raw data to create these stunning images.

Planetfall, an exhibition of Michael Benson's photographs,will be on view in the AAAS gallery March - June, 2013. A special thanks to NASA Federal Credit Union and the Verizon Foundation for their generous support.

Related Links:

• Learn more about Michael Benson's work here
• Amazon: Michael Benson's latest book Planetfall