NASA’s Cassini probe has sent some breath-taking pictures of Saturnian dawn. The images were captured on March 31, 2017 by Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera, while the spacecraft was about one million kilometres away from Saturn. The new images are in green light, and show Saturn’s sunlit atmosphere with icy rings.
“This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 7 degrees below the ring plane,” NASA revealed.
Launched on October 15, 1997 aboard a Titan IVB/Centaur, Cassini (precisely Cassini–Huygens) is the unmanned robotic spacecraft designed by NASA and ESA to study the planet Saturn and its natural satellites. Cassini is the fourth satellite launched to visit Saturn and the first to enter its orbit. Cassini entered the orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004, and the lander Huygens was separated from the orbiter on December 25, 2004 to land on Saturn’s moon Titan on January 14, 2005. Landing of Huygens was successful, and it was able to send data back to Earth using Cassini as a relay. Since 2004, Cassini has been orbiting the Saturn system, and has made several discoveries, including presence of liquid methane seas on moon Titan and finding a global ocean within the moon Enceladus. However, it is now running out of fuel. Cassini mission will conclude on September 15, 2017 when it will make a final dive into Saturn’s atmosphere.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is managing the Cassini mission. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
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