{"id":14582,"date":"2017-05-30T23:18:13","date_gmt":"2017-05-30T15:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/cassini-survives-closest-brush-with-saturns-inner-ring\/"},"modified":"2017-05-30T23:18:13","modified_gmt":"2017-05-30T15:18:13","slug":"cassini-survives-closest-brush-with-saturns-inner-ring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/cassini-survives-closest-brush-with-saturns-inner-ring\/","title":{"rendered":"Cassini survives closest brush with Saturn\u2019s inner ring"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This unprocessed image from Cassini\u2019s camera taken Sunday shows Saturn (upper right) and a portion of the planet\u2019s rings refracted through Saturn\u2019s atmosphere. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/Space Science Institute<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Barreling through space near the inner edge of Saturn\u2019s wispy D ring, NASA\u2019s Cassini spacecraft shielded itself from bits of ice and dust Sunday as the probe made its most dangerous plunge close to the planet, collecting spectacular edge-on views of Saturn\u2019s rings with an on-board camera.<\/p>\n

The raw images returned during Sunday\u2019s encounter show new close-up angles of the structure of Saturn\u2019s rings, and Cassini also turned its radar instrument to scan the rings in a first-of-its-kind experiment.<\/p>\n

Cassini\u2019s closest approach to Saturn occurred at 1422 GMT (10:22 a.m. EDT) Sunday, but the spacecraft was out of radio contact with Earth at the time. Engineers uplinked commands for Cassini to turn its high-gain communications antenna to point in its direction of travel, protecting the probe from any incoming microscopic ice particles.<\/p>\n

Officials confirmed a few hours later that Cassini re-established contact with controllers at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Images from the flyby began arriving on Earth on Monday.<\/p>\n

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Cassini captured this image of Saturn\u2019s rings Sunday. The unprocessed image has been rotated to view on this page. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/Space Science Institute<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sunday\u2019s flyby was the closest Cassini will come to Saturn\u2019s D ring, the innermost of the planet\u2019s rings. It was the sixth time Cassini has sailed through the gap between Saturn and its rings after the spacecraft reshaped its orbit in April with the mission\u2019s final close-range flyby the Saturn\u2019s largest moon Titan.<\/p>\n

Running low on fuel, the plutonium-powered spacecraft is in its final months, with its orbit around Saturn now taking it on weekly plunges through the ring gap. Cassini will fall into Saturn\u2019s atmosphere and be crushed Sept. 15.<\/p>\n

Cautious managers directed the antenna to point forward \u2014 in its so-called \u201cram\u201d position \u2014 during Cassini\u2019s first flight through the ring gap last month. But scientists detected fewer impacts from ice particles than predicted, allowing later flybys to forego the safeguard.<\/p>\n

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Artist\u2019s concept of the Cassini spacecraft at Saturn. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The passage Sunday, along with three more in June and July, will place Cassini much closer to the D ring, and controllers will again turn the craft\u2019s antenna into a shield for those encounters. Cassini\u2019s next visit to the ring gap on June 3, U.S. time, will be its second-closest brush with the D ring, again requiring the use of the antenna for protection.<\/p>\n

Scientists say Cassini\u2019s \u201cgrand finale\u201d will help them learn about Saturn\u2019s atmosphere, interior and magnetic field. Another prime objective of the flybys is to measure the mass and estimate the age of Saturn\u2019s rings, which will tell scientists about their origin.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This unprocessed image from Cassini\u2019s camera taken Sunday shows Saturn (upper right) and a portion of the planet\u2019s rings refracted through Saturn\u2019s atmosphere. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/Space Science Institute Barreling through space near the inner edge of Saturn\u2019s wispy D ring, NASA\u2019s Cassini spacecraft shielded itself from bits of ice and dust Sunday as the probe made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2394,1183,1561,1562],"class_list":["post-14582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-cassini","tag-jet-propulsion-laboratory","tag-planetary-science","tag-saturn"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14582"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}