Cassini Surfaces From Its Dive And Sends The Best Close Up Images Of Saturn Ever Seen

NASA regained contact with its Cassini spacecraft yesterday, after the probe came out of its first dive through Saturn¡¯s rings. Now, we can feast our eyes on some of the best close up images ever taken of the planet.

An illustration of Cassini orbiting Saturn - Images courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech

As Cassini dived through a previously unexplored region between the rings, it was using it¡¯s dish-shaped antenna as a shield to prevent damage from microparticles, which is why NASA was out of touch with the probe for a few hours. As soon as it came back online the afternoon of April 27, the agency began harvesting the data the spacecraft had gathered, publishing it online late last night.

¡°In the grandest tradition of exploration, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has once again blazed a trail, showing us new wonders and demonstrating where our curiosity can take us if we dare,¡± said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

As it plunged through the gap, Cassini came within about 3,000 kilometers of Saturn's cloud tops, where the atmospheric pressure is 1 bar (almost the same as that of Earth¡¯s sea level air pressure) and within about 300 kilometers from the innermost visible edge of the rings. ¡°No spacecraft has ever been this close to Saturn before. We could only rely on predictions, based on our experience with Saturn's other rings, of what we thought this gap between the rings and Saturn would be like,¡± said Cassini Project Manager Earl Maize of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. ¡°I am delighted to report that Cassini shot through the gap just as we planned and has come out the other side in excellent shape.¡±

The Cassini spacecraft zipped through the 2,000 kilometer-wide space between the rings at speeds of about 124,000 kph, capturing data every step of the way. The next dive through the gap is scheduled for May 2.

During this final phase, Cassini loops Saturn approximately once per week, making a total of 22 dives between the rings and the planet. Data from this first dive will help engineers understand if and how they will need to protect the spacecraft on its future ring-plane crossings. The spacecraft is on a trajectory that will eventually plunge into Saturn's atmosphere, and end Cassini's mission, on Sept 15, 2017.