For over 10 years, the Cassini spacecraft has been constantly monitoring Saturn and its satellites, and the public has become a little accustomed to constantly receiving black and white images from it. However, this week the 'hard worker' did something special – the probe passed through the rings of Saturn and got closer to the gas giant as part of its latest mission.
About two days prior to this dive, Cassini took a series of photographs showing the appearance of a strange and beautiful system of hexagonal anomaly – the storm of Saturn in the northern hemisphere of the planet. The photo clearly shows how a hexagonal jet stream surrounds a giant storm at the north pole of Saturn. NASA experts composited the photos and gave them color. On them you can see how this jet moves.
Nonetheless, the scientists at the Mission Control Center are more dejected than happy:
“This is the beginning of the end of our historical exploration of Saturn,” said Carolyn Porco, a mission spokesman. 'Let these photographs, and those that will be obtained on the way, remind you that we have ventured on daring adventures around the most magnificent planet in the solar system!'
Cassini is slated to make another pass through the outer edges of Saturn's rings on December 11, and the mission will be completed on April 22.
