NASA’s Cassini-Huygens orbiter has been up there for nearly twenty years, and it’s still delivering glimpses of Saturn that stuns most observers. But in its latest orbit it crossed through Saturn's rings on Monday at 13:09 GMT (8:09 EST), completing the first of 20 orbits and has sent back some stunning and breathtaking pictures ever of the rings of Saturn.
Cassini's imaging cameras acquired these latest views between Dec. 2 and 5 2016, about two days before the first ring-grazing approach to the planet
One of the most recent images released by Cassini, this picture of Saturn's rings was taken on Monday, 5 December [Photo Source]
The photos were taken at a distance of 400,000 miles from the surface of the planet, and originally have a resolution of just 256 by 256 pixels, space camera technology just wasn’t all that great back in 1997, when it was launched for the first time.
Resolution aside, Cassini’s camera is capable capturing its photos through several different filters, each of which is particularly sensitive to certain wavelengths. The resulting photos show the layers of cloud cover that make up the gas giant’s exterior.
With less than a year left to go in its mission, Cassini’s new orbits mark the start of special maneuvers that could offer scientists fresh insight into the evolution of the planet’s moons and iconic rings.
Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team lead at Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado, had the following to say
This is it, the beginning of the end of our historic exploration of Saturn. Let these images -- and those to come -- remind you that we've lived a bold and daring adventure around the solar system's most magnificent planet.
The spacecraft began the newest and last phase of its mission on November 30, which will see it perform various daredevil-type manoeuvres every seven days through Saturn's rings, before being destroyed in the planet's atmosphere on September 15, 2017.
Sources for the news and further reading
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4009938/From-Saturn-s-atmosphere-icy-halos-Cassini-captures-stunning-images-ring-grazing-orbit.html
- http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-cassini-saturn-pictures-20161207-story.html
- http://bgr.com/2016/12/07/saturn-pictures-nasa-cassini-photos/
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161207155755.htm
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/12/07/these-new-photos-of-saturn-are-literally-out-of-this-world/
- http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/cassini-saturn-probe-sends-images-from-ringgrazing-mission/news-story/2e52856b8ed24bea62d9fa987950ce75
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