Closer than ever NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

On 6 December, the Cassini spacecraft sent back the first photos since starting its closest orbits yet to Saturn’s rings.

This penultimate phase of Cassini’s mission, called the Ring-Grazing Orbits, started on 30 November and will send Cassini on 20 week-long trips soaring above Saturn’s northern hemisphere before gliding back down just outside the planet’s main rings.

These new images were taken on 2 and 3 December, about two days before the first ring-grazing approach to the planet, as Cassini flew over the northern hemisphere’s strange hexagonal jet stream. The hexagon is caused by a powerful wind current and churns constantly, rotating once every 10 and a half hours around the colossal hurricane at its centre.


Over the next few months, Cassini will send back the closest-ever images of Saturn’s rings and small moons, plus more photos of the planet itself. The final phase, called the Grand Finale, will begin on 22 April. At its end, in September 2017, Cassini will hurtle into Saturn’s haze and be destroyed by the very world it studied.

A whirling storm NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute