The Cassini spacecraft has become the first to fly into the gap between Saturn and its famous rings - a feat scientists say is a "dangerous moment".

It made the first of 22 "deep dives" between the rings at around 10am UK time (9am GMT).

It used its four-metre dish antenna as a shield as a precaution, in case it was battered by any large particles in the rings.

Image: The craft put up its dish for protection in case it encountered any large chunks of rock

A nail-biting wait has now begun as Cassini's communications to Earth go dark for about a day while it makes observations about the planet.

"Images and other data are expected to begin flowing in shortly after communication is established," NASA said.


If it survives, it is hoped the craft will re-establish radio links as early as 8.05 UK time on Thursday.

This is it! Through the gap between #Saturn and its rings. Instruments are on, but we're out of contact with Earth. Here we goooooo! pic.twitter.com/3J7aRZS0IH — CassiniSaturn (@CassiniSaturn) April 26, 2017

Cassini is running low on fuel though, and will make a kamikaze plunge to Saturn's surface on 15 September.

The decision to write-off the craft was made to avoid damaging the planet's moons which could later be explored for signs of life.

Cassini started orbiting Saturn, some 746 million miles from Earth, in 2004 after beginning its marathon journey in 1997.

Image: Cassini will plunge into Saturn in September and break up

Saturn's rings are made up of billions of particles, ranging from dust-sized icy grains to a few as big as mountains and are about 1,600m thick but span up to 175,000 miles.

They are believed to be pieces of comets, asteroids or shattered moons that broke up before they reached the planet.

Cassini aims to reveal exactly how the formed, how they stay in orbit and why they are there in the first place.

But it is a tricky mission - the mass of debris moves at about 67,800mph.

Cassini team member Luciano Iess, from Rome's Sapienza University, said plunging between the rings and the planet is a "dangerous moment for the mission".

Image: Cassini took this mosaic of Saturn in 2012 using infrared, red and violet spectral filters

As well as hopefully leading to new discoveries about the rings, the flyby should also give an insight into the interior of Saturn.

"We hope to get a measurement of the core mass, how many heavy elements are concentrated in the interior of Saturn," Mr Iess said.