NASA’s Cassini Captures Ultimate Images of Saturn’s Icy Rings

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been capturing several images in space for a very long time, it turns out that recently Cassini has captured the closest view of some ultimate images of Saturn's Icy Rings.

The images have revealed extraordinary levels of detail in the massive discs that has been orbiting the planet. Cassini is on the "ring gazing" mission phase, where the spacecraft will circle the outer edge of Saturn's main ring system as per Space.

Cassini is almost a 20 years old spacecraft that has provided loads of information and images for all this while.  However, it journey might draw to an end as it will soon sacrifice itself into the gas giant. The spacecraft's ring gazing dives had begun in November last year, and it is almost halfway through its final 20 orbits.

NASA's scientists have stated that they have never seen such detailed high definition images before. The new shots have resolved some intricate details as small as 550 meters, which is almost the scale of a few tallest buildings on Earth as per Science Alert.

The rippled appearance in Saturn's rings is known as the density wave, which is made up of icy particles that stick together. Though the rings are visible from Earth through a small telescope the detailed definition of the icy particles cannot be seen.

This is said to be the best close up view that scientists have got since 2004 and 2005, earlier the spacecraft had got closer to the rings during its arrival on Saturn. But the quality of those images was not as good as the recent ones.

Cassini has made several discoveries in space, some notable ones are finding a Global Ocean of Vents on the icy moon Enceladus. It also discovered liquid methane seas on Saturn's largest moon Titan.

Cassini is in its last stages and the spacecraft will position itself to make a suicide plunge into Saturn this September. 

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NASA Cassini, Cassini Spacecraft, NASA mission, Saturn's rings, NASA discoveries

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