Cassini Sends Back First Images of Saturn

Cassini sends back first images of Saturn

WASHINGTON, July 1 (Xinhua) — The spacecraft Cassini, which successfully entered the Saturn’s orbit late Wednesday, sent back the first images of the giant planet’s rings to Earth early Thursday.

The first images taken from the unlit side of the rings when the probe entered orbit late Wednesday were followed by increasingly clear pictures on Thursday. Pictures arrived later at Earth were taken from the sunlit side of the rings. All the images show fine ring structures and surprisingly sharp edges.

Mission scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory called the photos “beautiful” and “mind-blowing.” They still need time to analyze the images. Scientists believe data from the Saturn system can help them understand how the planets of the Solar system evolved.

Cassini entered Saturn’s orbit late Wednesday as planned. After a safe flight through Saturn’s ring plane with its high-gain antenna oriented forward to shield it from small particles, Cassini performed a critical engine firing to slow it down so it could be captured by the gravitational force of Saturn, the sixth planet from Sun and the second largest.

The orbit insertion came after two decades of work by about 260 scientists from the United States and 17 European countries. The 3. 3-billion-US dollar mission, which was funded by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, has been hailed as a model of international cooperation.

Cassini is expected to make 76 orbits and repeated fly-bys at seven of the 31 known moons of Saturn in the next four years or more, for the study of Saturn, its rings and some of its moons.

In December, it is planned to release from its back the smaller probe Huygens, which is expected to fall on the surface of Saturn’ s largest moon Titan in January to conduct a brief study of Titan’ s atmosphere.

The Cassini and Huygens probes are named after 17th century astronomers Jean Dominique Cassini and Christiaan Huygens.