NASA's Cassini probe just got closer to Saturn than ever before - here's what its death spiral is revealing
Cassini will need to use Titan's gravity again on September 11 to help direct its final plunge, which will happen on September 15.
On its last dives through the rings, Cassini will also able to analyze samples of Saturn's rings on its last dives. That will help scientists figure out how dense they are and better understand what they're made of.
In the image above, the light of a new day on Saturn illuminates the planet’s wavy cloud patterns and the smooth arcs of its vast rings. This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 10 degrees above their plane.
On its next dip into Saturn's atmosphere on August 20, Cassini may be able to go even deeper. It could see the planet's northern aurora and measure the temperature of its southern polar vortex.
To capture the image above, Cassini gazed toward the rings beyond Saturn's sunlit horizon. Along the limb (the planet's edge) at left can be seen a thin, detached haze. This haze vanishes toward the right side of the scene.
Before getting to the Grand Finale stage, Cassini was able to capture this view of Saturn's moon Prometheus inside Saturn's F ring.
Many of the narrow F ring's faint and wispy features result from its gravitational interactions with Prometheus, which is 53 miles (86 kilometers) across.
So far, scientists have been unable to discern any tilt between Saturn's magnetic field and its rotation axis. That contradicts our understanding of magnetic fields, and makes it impossible to know exactly how long Saturn's days are.
NASA hopes this closest-ever brush with Saturn will reveal new components of its atmosphere, which is believed to be about 75% hydrogen, with most of the rest being helium.
The clouds on Saturn look like strokes from a cosmic brush because of the wavy way that fluids interact in Saturn's atmosphere.
The first of the probe's final five orbits took it between the rings and the planet itself. Data from that fly-by is being sent back to NASA today.
These two views of Titan show the new details about the moon's surface — including clouds and hazes in its atmosphere — that Cassini has revealed.
Gravity from Titan, Saturn's planet-sized moon, plays a key role in Cassini's final orbits. NASA is using the force to bend Cassini's course, a task that would otherwise require large amounts of rocket fuel.
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