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Cassini moves in closer to the jewel of our solar system! According to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's article Cassini Makes First Ring-Grazing Plunge:
Cassini crossed through the plane of Saturn's rings on Dec. 4 at 5:09 a.m. PST (8:09 a.m. EST) at a distance of approximately 57,000 miles (91,000 kilometers) above Saturn's cloud tops. This is the approximate location of a faint, dusty ring produced by the planet's small moons Janus and Epimetheus, and just 6,800 miles (11,000 kilometers) from the center of Saturn's F ring.
The BBC brings us news of new Saturn images from the Cassini mission, including the hexagon-shaped storm in Saturn's northern atmosphere:
Cassini began what are known as its ring-grazing orbits on 30 November. Each of these week-long orbits - 20 in all - lifts the spacecraft high above Saturn's northern hemisphere before sending it hurtling past the outer edges of the planet's main rings.
Nasa said that it would release images from future passes that included some of the closest-ever views of the outer rings and small moons that orbit there.
Carolyn Porco, the head of Cassini's imaging team, commented: "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."
See also NASA JPL's release regarding the new images.
For more information, NASA JPL also provides a summary page for Cassini's ring-grazing orbits, including a diagram of the probe's projected orbital path, a glossary, and a countdown timer to the second ring-grazing orbit.
(Score: 2) by snufu on Thursday December 08 2016, @07:40PM
Italian
Ring-Grazing
Probe
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