{"id":18974,"date":"2017-05-02T18:21:09","date_gmt":"2017-05-02T10:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/listen-to-the-sound-of-silence-as-cassini-crosses-the-big-empty-in-saturn-orbit\/"},"modified":"2017-05-02T18:21:09","modified_gmt":"2017-05-02T10:21:09","slug":"listen-to-the-sound-of-silence-as-cassini-crosses-the-big-empty-in-saturn-orbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/listen-to-the-sound-of-silence-as-cassini-crosses-the-big-empty-in-saturn-orbit\/","title":{"rendered":"Listen to the sound of silence as Cassini crosses \u2018The Big Empty\u2019 in Saturn orbit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Saturn
The hexagon-shaped cloud system at Saturn\u2019s north polar region looms in the foreground with the planet\u2019s rings stretching across the background, in an image captured by the Cassini spacecraft\u2019s camera on April 26. Click on the image for a larger version. (NASA \/ JPL-Caltech \/ Kevin M. Gill Image \/ CC-BY-2.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The researchers behind NASA\u2019s Cassini mission to Saturn are relieved, and a bit mystified, to discover that the narrow gap between the giant planet and its rings is virtually devoid of stray particles.<\/p>\n

The discovery comes from the bus-sized Cassini spacecraft\u2019s first dive through the gap on April 26, which marked the beginning of the end for the 20-year mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe region between the rings and Saturn is \u2018The Big Empty,\u2019 apparently,\u201d Cassini project manager Earl Maize of NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a news release.<\/p>\n

The finding came as a relief, because Cassini\u2019s engineers had worried that the probe might be pummeled by unseen dust particles associated with Saturn\u2019s visible rings. If such a disk of dust were dense enough, it could have done damage to Cassini\u2019s hardware.<\/p>\n

To guard against that potential damage, Cassini was commanded to turn its main antenna into the expected stream to act as a shield during last week\u2019s first dive.<\/p>\n