Photos of Saturn from space in high quality. The best photos of "Cassini". The best shots of "Cassini"
For the past 13 years, the Cassini spacecraft has silently changed our understanding of the solar system. The Cassini mission, a $ 3.62 billion joint project between the US aerospace agency NASA and the European Space Agency, was to study the gas giant Saturn and its many moons. But tomorrow this mission will come to its literally blazing end. On Friday at 7:55 am ET, Earth will no longer receive data from Cassini as the craft hits Saturn's atmosphere at a meteoric speed and is purposefully destroyed. Astronomers have been preparing for this moment for many years.
All of the spacecraft's instruments are still working fine, but the long mission has used up almost all the fuel needed to correct the probe's orbital trajectory around Saturn. But rather than just letting the craft spiral out of control and possibly crashing elsewhere, the mission control team programmed the probe's computer to re-enter Saturn's atmosphere to safeguard the planet's moons and any possible life forms on them.
Despite all the merits of this spacecraft, "Cassini", so to speak, has always been an outsider. Its mission was not as bright as the mission of the New Horizons spacecraft that flew past Pluto, or any other mission related to Mars, where over the past couple of decades the American agency has sent more than one lander and rover. Topics related to the Saturn mission rarely made major headlines. However, the lack of hype in no way diminished the degree of scientific importance of the discoveries that Cassini made.
Formalities aside, it began on October 15, 1997, when Cassini was launched into Earth's orbit aboard the Titan IVB / Centaur launch vehicle. The launch was joint - the launch vehicle also launched into orbit the Huygens probe, built by the European Space Agency. This device was designed to land on the largest satellite of Saturn, Titan, from where it could transmit scientific data to researchers on Earth.
The launch took place not without incidents. There were people who protested against the launch of the Cassini because of fears of pollution of the environment with plutonium fuel, on the basis of which the spacecraft operates. Before the Cassini was dispatched, physicist Michio Kaku said that if the launch was unsuccessful and the rocket exploded, the radioactive material would rain down on people near the launch site. NASA and government agencies were quick to assure everyone that such a situation was simply impossible. Fortunately, in the end, the launch did go through without any problems.
Two spacecraft arrived at Saturn 7 years after their launch from the launch site at Cape Canaveral. Huygens landed on Titan on January 14, 2005. Since then, Cassini has completed many orbital revolutions around the planet and its satellites. Thanks to him, we got the opportunity to take a fresh look at this system, to understand the peculiarities of the rings of the planet.
Satellites
From the huge Titan to the tiny moon Daphnis, Cassini's observations have revealed a lot about the satellites of this giant ring planet. Saturn and its moons can literally be seen as a miniature solar system.
Pan (similar to a dumpling)
Five of Cassini's most interesting discoveries
It is difficult to list all the contributions to planetary science that Cassini made over the 13 years of its mission, but it is not difficult to understand how much this mission means to scientists on Earth. Below are just a few of the most important discoveries made by this probe over more than a decade of its operation.
The Cassini not only noticed, but flew through the plumes of liquid water fired into space from the subsurface ocean of Enceladus. The discovery was amazing. The satellite's ocean may well have the correct chemical composition for life, making it one of the most coveted targets for the search for extraterrestrial life within the solar system.
By watching Titan, we were able to learn more about ourselves. Exploration of one of the largest moons of Saturn has revealed a complex world of lakes of liquid methane and dunes of hydrocarbons. To the untrained observer, Titan may appear similar to Earth, but it is clearly an alien planet, representing the perfect example of the diversity among planetary bodies.
Until the moment the Cassini was sent to Saturn in 1997, scientists knew only about the existence of 18 satellites orbiting the annular giant. While the spacecraft was moving towards this planet for seven years, the researchers discovered 13 more satellites. However, today, thanks to "Cassini", we were able to find out that Saturn is the "dad" of 53 satellites.
During its work, Cassini has managed to obtain truly impressive images of Saturn, but perhaps the most impressive and at the same time unique are the photographs of the planet's poles. We were able to see in detail the hexagonal flow of atmospheric currents surrounding a powerful storm raging at the north pole of Saturn. According to NASA, the area of this hurricane is 50 times larger than the area of the average hurricane on Earth.
Before the climax of the mission, Cassini took a position between the rings of the planet and Saturn itself. And as it turned out, it's incredibly calm here. Instead of the expected swirls of dust rushing between the planet and the rings, Cassini found absolutely empty space during its last orbital flights.
A mission to be missed
Although, as noted above, the Cassini mission was not as bright as the Martian ones, it turned out to be very useful for modern astronomy. Each month, the probe sent truly unique, previously unseen images and new scientific data to Earth. Many aspiring astronomers have built their careers around this data.
Completion of the mission will be a real loss for the scientific and pseudo-scientific community. Especially against the background of the fact that, in addition to the probe, which will study the satellite of Jupiter Europa, NASA and other space agencies have no plans, at least in the visible future, to continue studying the horizons of the distant worlds of the solar system like Saturn, Neptune and Uranus.
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The best shots of "Cassini"
Tomorrow the Cassini mission will be completed. The device will burn in the atmosphere of Saturn, which will put an end to the more than 30-year history of the project. Cassini leaves behind a very rich legacy: gigabytes and gigabytes of data that will be analyzed by researchers for more than a decade. We must not forget about the mission's photo archive. Cassini has taken hundreds of thousands of images of the gas giant and its satellites. Even people with little interest in space have probably seen at least a few of these images. Given all the richness of choice, it is almost impossible to create some kind of objective top of the best photos of the mission. However, I have tried to select some of the most iconic images of Cassini.
Approaching the solstice. A view of Saturn's northern hemisphere in mid-2016, shortly before the summer solstice.
Hexagon. The famous hexagonal storm located at the north pole of Saturn. The length of each side is almost 14 thousand km, which is more than the diameter of the Earth.
Eye of the Hexagonal Storm Saturn (fake colors).
The day Saturn stopped. Mosaic taken on July 19, 2013 when the Sun was exactly behind the planet.
Rings of Saturn on the background of the planet. A layer of thin haze can be seen in the stratosphere.
On the way to Saturn, Cassini visited Jupiter. Photo of the planet, taken by him at the end of 2000.
Io with Jupiter's clouds in the background.
The main rings of Saturn.
Two Titans. The largest satellite of Saturn in the background of the planet.
A bizarre combination of the rings of Saturn and the shadows cast by them on the surface of the planet. In the center of the dividing ring of the gap (the so-called Encke division), you can see a small dot. It is the 35-kilometer-long satellite of Pan, whose gravity created this rift.
Satellite Pan and the Encke gap formed by it.
The disturbance in the F ring is most likely caused not by external forces (like the Pandora satellite captured in the photo), but by a small object located inside the ring itself.
Tethys against the background of the rings of Saturn.
Epimetheus.
The storm observed on Saturn in 2010. At its peak, he literally whirled around the planet.
Dione against the background of a thin strip of rings of Saturn.
Dione's surface.
One of the strangest moons of Saturn is Hyperion. It has a very unusual "spongy" structure. Also, the satellite has an irregular rotation period. This means that the length of the day on Hyperion is unstable and can vary by tens of percent over several weeks.
Iapetus. This satellite is famous for its contrasts. The leading (front) hemisphere of Iapetus is black as soot, and the driven (back) hemisphere shines almost as brightly as freshly fallen snow. It is believed that the difference in color is due to dust settling on Iapetus's leading hemisphere from the distant satellites of Saturn.
The Wall of Iapetus is a mountain range that encircles the entire satellite along the equator.
Saturn's two largest moons are Rhea and Titan.
Enceladus. One of the main findings of the Cassini mission. A number of active geysers are concentrated at the south pole of this satellite. Under the icy surface of Enceladus, there is a whole ocean of liquid water.
The eruption of the geysers of Enceladus.
Mimas against the background of the rings of Saturn.
Titan and Epimetheus in front of the rings of Saturn.
Radar image of the Sea of Ligea, Titan's second largest hydrocarbon sea.
Daphnis. The orbit of this tiny 8-kilometer moon passes right inside the ring A. Despite its very small size, Daphnis's gravity is enough to create a gap in the ring (42-kilometer Keeler gap) and form waves in it.
Rings of Saturn: inside view.
The "shepherd companions" of the F ring: Prometheus and Pandora.
Prometheus and the disturbance it creates in the F ring.
Outer edge of ring B.
Spiral density waves inside ring B.
Space dumpling No. 1 Pan.
Space dumpling №2 Atlas.
Rain and sunset: how Cassini meets the last moments of life
MOSCOW, September 13 - RIA Novosti. The Cassini space probe will spend its last moments of life at sunset on Saturn, flying through streams of rain from the rings of the giant planet, scientists said at a press conference at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“We expect that the last Cassini signal will be transmitted to Earth on Friday afternoon, at about two hours 55 minutes and 6 seconds. Of course, the very fact of losing such a brilliant probe makes us very upset, but we are very proud of what we have achieved for 12 years of operation of the probe, and we believe that humanity must definitely return to the Saturn system, "said Earl Maize, head of the Cassini mission at NASA.
Final note of the opera
Maze and other members of the Cassini project yesterday summed up one of the longest-lived and most successful space missions in the history of mankind, and also talked about what the last minutes of the probe's life will be and what discoveries are expected during the last dive of the automatic station into the atmosphere of Saturn.
“We are very proud that our probe has worked for 13 years in the orbit of a distant planet in an almost perfect way, with a minimum of problems and emergency situations. During this time, it received more than 500 thousand photographs, flew 160 flights past Titan and transmitted about 635 gigabytes of data to Earth. . This is a fantastic amount of information, considering that Cassini was designed in the 1980s and built on the basis of the technologies of the time, "continued Meise.
As the scientist noted, many of Cassini's discoveries were made thanks to its powerful scientific stuffing - the probe is equipped with 12 scientific instruments, many of which have found unexpected applications in the study of Saturn and its satellites.
However, noted Linda Spilker, scientific director of the mission, it was impossible to foresee everything, and now scientists regret that there are no more powerful spectrometers and other instruments on board the Cassini, which are necessary to study the chemical composition of the emissions from the Enceladus geysers. The tools available have prevented NASA from testing whether amino acids and other potential building blocks of life were present in the water, Spilker said. This task will have to be solved by the heirs of Cassini.
In addition, neither NASA nor scientists expected that "Cassini" will attract so much public attention - in honor of the probe, astronomy lovers have already managed to compose a mini-opera. As Maze jokes, if the engineers who created the probe had guessed of such an interest, they would have attached several mirrors to the antennas so that the device could take selfies with Saturn and its satellites in the background.
The last stage in the life of "Cassini" began last weekend, when the probe last came close to Titan in order, thanks to its gravity, to change its orbit and enter the trajectory of collision with Saturn.
According to Mase, Titan was actually the main "engine" of the probe throughout its operation: it put Cassini into new orbits more than 100 times, allowing the station to study all of Saturn's large moons with minimal fuel consumption.
Gravity is the probe's best friend
The last maneuver of this kind was performed perfectly, and now Cassini is preparing for the final observations of Saturn, its rings and moons. Tonight, he will transmit the photographs of the moons and rings to Earth for the last time and will focus on the process of approaching the planet, stopping the collection of scientific data and photographs.
At the same time, the probe will begin to work in real time, constantly transmitting data from eight scientific instruments to the tracking station on Earth, which will be turned on at the time of its death. As Spilker explained, the Cassini team deliberately lowered the data rate to a minimum so that clouds or bad weather did not interfere with the observation of the death of the probe.
According to NASA forecasts, the probe will enter the atmosphere of Saturn and burn up in it a little earlier than originally expected - not at three o'clock in the afternoon Moscow time, but at two hours 55 minutes and 6 seconds.
The reason for this is that Cassini once again discovered that the real properties of Saturn's interior are markedly different from what scientists expected to see, and astronomers have yet to uncover the roots of these differences. Death of "Cassini", according to Mase, will be very fast - the probe will burn up literally moments after it enters the dense layers of the atmosphere.
The Cassini probe is not designed to fly through the atmosphere of the planets, it was created to study them from a great distance. In the last five orbits of the "Final of the Opera" we have already flown through the outskirts of Saturn's atmosphere, and we had to turn on the thrusters on 40% so that the probe does not die. Accordingly, after entering the atmosphere, these engines will be quickly overloaded, the probe will lose stability, and this will mark the end of the mission, "explains the scientist.
According to him, at this time, "Cassini" will accelerate to a speed of about 70 thousand kilometers per hour and burn in the atmosphere in one or two minutes, continuing to transmit data to the Earth as long as it "looks" at it. The last to die are the radioisotope energy sources of the probe, protected from the external environment by shells of refractory iridium.
Crying planet
As Spilker and Hunter Waite, one of the leaders of the Cassini science team, said, the probe will spend its last moments in the company of two beautiful space phenomena - the Saturnian sunset, the last photographs of which it will transmit to Earth shortly before diving into the atmosphere, and exotic rain generated by the rings of Saturn.
"One of the main scientific mysteries that we will try to uncover in the last moments of the probe's life is to understand how this 'ring rain' arises and what it is. Back in the early 1990s, our colleagues suggested, studying the images of the Pioneers and" Voyagers "that the upper atmosphere of Saturn is constantly raining, generated by particles of ice and dust, gradually descending from the rings into its upper layers," - explained White.
As the planetary scientist notes, the last flights of Cassini over the edge of Saturn's atmosphere have already proven that this rain really exists, but its physical properties and how it affects the behavior of the giant planet remains a mystery. The Cassini team hopes that the flight of the probe through the rain will help find answers to some of these questions.
In addition, for the first time, Cassini will directly measure the fraction of helium isotopes in Saturn's matter, allowing scientists to understand how the solar system and giant planets were born. This data, Mase said, was so important to NASA that his team abandoned the transfer of imagery and other scientific data in the last moments of the probe's life in favor of taking measurements from spectrometers.
Cassini's success, according to Jim Green, NASA's planetary science chief, has already prompted the space agency to ponder how and when it could send another probe into the Saturn system. According to him, NASA is already considering two possible missions to the satellites of the giant planet as part of the New Frontiers program, aimed at middle-class space missions.
“The discoveries of Cassini on Titan and Enceladus were so amazing that we included these objects in the list of possible targets for research under the New Frontiers program last year. I can say that we have already received similar proposals and are now considering them. Expect news in the near future, "concluded Green.
Clouds over Saturn. Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute
NASA announced the termination of a 20-year mission to explore Saturn. Probe "Cassini" (named after the Italian astronomer Giovanno Cassini - ed.) descended into the planet's atmosphere and burned up. The last signal of the device lasted 83 minutes and reached the Earth at 14:55 Moscow time.
The Cassini-Huygens mission began in 1982 with a joint working group from the US National Academy of Sciences and the European Science Foundation. In October 1997, the craft was launched from Cape Canaveral. The device spent almost 13 years in orbit of Saturn, during which time it transmitted 635 gigabytes of data and 453 thousand images to the earth.
The spacecraft reached the orbit of the planet only in 2004, having previously made maneuvers around Venus, Earth and Jupiter. Earlier it was planned that the mission will be completed in 2008, it was decided to extend it until 2010. The final decision to complete the mission was made in 2017 due to a lack of fuel.
One of the most important achievements of the mission is the landing of the Huygens lander on Titan (the largest satellite of Saturn - ed.) January 14, 2005. The device studied the atmosphere of the satellite.
Methane clouds over Titan. Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute The probe took photographs of Saturn's rings, which are composed of ice and dust particles. It is still not known when they formed and why. Cassini's images helped scientists discover a new ring of Saturn - the ring of Janus-Epimetheus. The device studied the previously unknown satellites of the planet - Polideuk, Pallena, Methona, Anfa, Aegeon and Daphnis.
The Cassini image shows the wave structure of Saturn's rings on June 4, 2017. Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute 
Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute The device was also studied by another satellite of Saturn - Enceladus. The Cassini images showed that the satellite had 250-kilometer plumes of water gushing from the ice faults on the satellite's surface. Scientists have found that under the ice is an ocean 45 kilometers deep. The ice can be anywhere from two to twenty kilometers thick.
Enceladus. Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute In 2015, the Cassini performed the most dangerous maneuver - flying through the trains of Enceladus. Thanks to this, scientists have found that the emissions from the satellite contain chemical elements that may indicate the formation of organic matter under the surface.
Trails of Enceladus. Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute The last mission of the probe was called the Grand Finale, it consisted in a controlled fall of the apparatus into the planet's atmosphere. During this time, "Cassini" flew 22 times between the surface of Saturn and its rings (the distance is about 2 thousand kilometers).
One of the last pictures of "Cassini" taken on September 13, 2017. Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute 
The last snapshot of the device. Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute “This is the final chapter of an amazing mission, but it is also the beginning. Cassini's discovery of ocean worlds on Titan and Enceladus has changed everything, reversing our understanding of amazing places to search for potential life beyond Earth, ”said Thomas Zurbuchen, Deputy Administrator of the NASA Science Office.
Cassini Mission Control Center after receiving the last signal from the probe. Screenshot from the broadcast NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The last photo of Cassini was taken on September 14, and on September 15 the entire mission, which lasted for 13 years, ended. The robotic station was launched to Saturn on October 15, 1997, and reached it in 2004. Since then, she has conducted a multifaceted study of this gas giant, its rings and moons.
Is NASA's most successful project to date. The apparatus not only fulfilled all the assigned tasks, but also did a lot beyond the plan. However, it was decided to destroy it on September 15 due to running out of fuel to correct the orbit. Without fuel, the station becomes unmanageable, although its equipment functions normally.
Cassini chose a simple method of destruction - to "drop" the apparatus on so that it would burn up in the atmosphere, like a large meteor. This method was chosen so as not to leave the unmanaged station in orbit, since in the end it will still fall on one of Saturn's satellites, which is very undesirable. The fact is that there are quite convincing hypotheses about the possible presence of primitive life on some of the satellites, and scientists would like to explore their subglacial oceans in the future. A station that fell on such a satellite can bring terrestrial microorganisms there, disrupting the natural ecosystem, if any.
On September 14, at 19:59 UT, Cassini station took its last picture before plunging into the atmosphere of Saturn. The last picture of Cassini was taken from a distance of 634 thousand kilometers from the planet, using a wide-angle camera. It was here that the stations were to die - on the night side of the planet, illuminated by the reflected light from the rings. Until the last moment, the Cassini station transmitted scientific data on the composition of Saturn's atmosphere. It was a real heroic death in the name of science.
The second photo is after processing the previous one with color filters to bring it to natural colors.
And now we can only say "Thank you, Cassini" - for a huge amount of valuable information and discoveries, for the opportunity to look into other worlds, so close and at the same time distant. The video below shows the main achievements of this station.
The information transmitted by Cassini to Earth will be enough for scientists for several years of processing. Many more discoveries will probably be made on its basis.
The vortex in the northern hemisphere of Saturn resembles a beautiful gigantic red rose surrounded by green foliage. Photo taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The maximum speed reached a staggering 150 meters per second, and the diameter of the tornado was 2000 kilometers. The picture was taken at a distance of approximately 419,000 km from Saturn. (NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI)
Saturn during the equinox. The light from the sun, reflected by the planet, hits the satellites, illuminating them. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
The ring-line shadows of distant Saturn provide an exquisite backdrop for the brilliant, white sphere of Enceladus. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
Saturn's moon Prometheus (86 kilometers in diameter) periodically creates streamer channels. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
The largest moon of Saturn and the second largest moon, Titan and Rhea, are opposite each other. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
A photograph of Saturn's small moon, Helena, was taken on March 3, 2010. Elena's diameter is 33 kilometers. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
The image shows the surface of Dione, the satellite photo was taken on October 12, 2005, at a distance of approximately 23,029 km. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
Vertical structure of the main rings of Saturn. NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured the rings in July 2009. In this image, Cassini's narrow-angle camera captures a 1200-kilometer section of the outer edge of the ring. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
Cassini photographed Saturn's moon Mimas. The picture shows the Herschel crater, which, on the right side, is 130 km wide. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
This unusual maze of lines, captured by Cassini, is actually a photograph of the gas giant Saturn, its rings and the small icy moon Mimas. The rings cast dark shadows over Saturn's northern hemisphere, creating a photo-negative effect. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
Mountain peaks of the equatorial ridge of Iapetus. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
A dark and light surface in the northern hemisphere of Iapetus (1,468 kilometers across). (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
The Cassini spacecraft photographed the moon of Dion, with the southern hemisphere of Saturn's moon Rhea visible in the foreground. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
The picture shows Calypso (21 kilometers across). It is one of the two companions of Tethys. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
Less than 20 minutes after Cassini approached Titan on March 31, 2005, cameras captured this view of Saturn through Titan's upper atmosphere. The northern part of Saturn's disk can be seen in the upper left corner; the dark horizontal lines are shadows from Saturn's rings. The picture was taken at a distance of 7,980 kilometers from Titan. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
This image shows the first burst of sunlight reflected off a lake on Saturn's moon Titan. Glitter from a specular surface is known as specular reflection. The brilliance was discovered by an infrared spectrometer located on the Cassini spacecraft on July 8, 2009. This confirmed the presence of liquid in the northern hemisphere of the satellite, where there are much more lakes than in the southern hemisphere. Scientists speculate that the lakes are filled with liquid ethane and methane. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / DLR)
Titan glows at sunset. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
The mysterious hexagon at the north pole of Saturn. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
On October 5, 2008, Cassini photographed this stunning mosaic of Enceladus. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
The Cassini spacecraft successfully completed its mission on October 1, 2011, circling Saturn's moon Enceladus and capturing jets of water vapor and ice. During its closest approach, the spacecraft flew 100 kilometers from the satellite's surface. This approach was necessary in order for the spacecraft to be able to capture the gas emitted by the satellite for further study. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
The photo was taken on October 31, 2008, during a flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus, at a distance of approximately 1691 kilometers. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
The moons Atlas and Pan are visible from the side of Saturn. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
The Cassini spacecraft flew past Epimetheus (116 kilometers) in December 2007, taking a detailed view of the satellite's south pole. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
The moon of Saturn, Mimas, peeps out from behind the larger moon of Dione. Photo taken by the Cassini spacecraft on December 12, 2011. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
The vortex at Saturn's north pole is visible in the infrared. The huge cyclone's eye is about 2000 kilometers wide. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
Surface of Saturn's moon Dione, photo taken on October 11, 2005. The Cassini spacecraft was able to capture the unreal landscape of the satellite. The image shows craters and hills located on the surface. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
The satellite Prometheus creates a complex pattern in the F ring. Photo taken in August 2009. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
A burst of brightness seen on Saturn's rings. It appears when the sun is directly behind the ship, creating a colorful halo of light. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)
The satellite Mimas (397 kilometers across) is visible at a distance of approximately 191,000 kilometers. (NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute)