NASA's high-stakes space voyager circles Saturn and sends back stunning pictures of its unique system
After successfully entering orbit around Saturn early yesterday, the Cassini spacecraft sent back crisp close-ups of the planet's famed rings, images that left scientists eager for more.
Carolyn Porco, the leader of the Cassini imaging team and a veteran planetary scientist, said she was surprised "with the beauty and the clarity of these images. They are shocking to me." Some of the first photos were so clear, she said, that she thought they might have been simulations of the rings rather than the real thing. She spoke at a news briefing yesterday at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., where the mission is directed.
The photos were taken by Cassini after it had ascended through a 15,500-mile gap between two of the outer rings of Saturn and fired its engine for just over 90 minutes to slow itself into orbit. As it flew above the rings, it took some images of them backlit by the sun. It then dived through the gap in the ring plane, taking more pictures as it looked back at the rings in full sunlight.
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