The Cassini spacecraft will soon be deliberately sent into a trajectory directly into the gas giant Saturn’s atmosphere, where it will burn up and marks the end of its 13-year mission. Here are some of the incredible things it has seen along the way.
1
Titan fall
This panoramic picture shows the landing zone of the European Huygens probe on Titan, as seen from a 10km altitude. Huygens touched down at the base of a mountain range.
2
Chilly moon
Before entering its orbit around Saturn, Cassini approached the outer Saturnian moon Phoebe to within 12,000km. Phoebe is irregularly shaped and heavily cratered, and measures some 200km across. The moon’s low density indicates that ice is a major constituent.
3
Mind the gap
The gravity of Saturn’s tiny moon Daphnis, which orbits the planet in the narrow Keeler Gap, produces strange wavelike patterns in the ring system. Daphnis is just 8km across, but continuously sweeps up tiny ring particles.
4
Shadowy planet
This photomosaic of Saturn shows the unlit side of the ring system. The rings cast their shadow on Saturn’s cloud deck, just north of the planet’s equator.
5
Ice rings
Cassini took this image of Saturn and its ring system while passing through the planet’s shadow. The outer purple band is Saturn’s very tenuous E-ring, which contains dust particles and ice crystals that originate in the geysers of Enceladus.
Follow Science Focus onTwitter,Facebook, Instagramand Flipboard