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SCIENCESaturday 29 April 2017
Spacecraft survives unprecedented trip between Saturn, rings
MARCIA DUNN This combination of April 26, 2017 images show features in Saturn’s atmosphere from closer than ever before. The view was captured
AP Aerospace Writer by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft as it became the first spacecraft to venture between Saturn and its rings.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.
(AP) — NASA’s Cassini Associated Press
spacecraft has survived
an unprecedented trip be- tails never seen before — between Saturn and Earth. well as the innermost D ring. ence. There’s little to lose,
tween Saturn and its rings, there’s an incredible close- Twenty-one more cross- The gap between the rings even if the spacecraft is
and has amazing pictures up, for instance, of the gi- ings are planned — about and the top of Saturn’s at- lost, given that its fuel tank
to show for it. gantic swirling hurricane at one a week — before Cas- mosphere is between 1,200 is practically empty, ac-
Flight controllers regained Saturn’s north pole. sini’s fatal plunge in mid- and 1,500 miles across cording to NASA.
contact with Cassini on After 13 years of Cassini or- September. The next one (1,900 to 2,400 kilometers). Cassini was launched in
Thursday, a day after it biting the planet, “Saturn is Tuesday. Some of those While risky, this 4 1/2-month 1997 from Cape Canav-
became the first craft to continues to surprise us,” passages will bring Cassini grand finale is expected to eral, Florida, and reached
cross this hazardous re- Pitesky said. even closer to the planet as yield a treasure trove of sci- Saturn in 2004.q
gion. The rings are made Given their importance,
up of countless icy par- data from the crossing are Touch new stamp and presto, total
ticles, any of which could being sent to Earth twice,
have smacked Cassini. The to make certain nothing is solar eclipse becomes moon
spacecraft’s big dish an- lost. It takes more than an
tenna served as a shield as hour for the signals to travel AP Aerospace Writer
it hurtled through the nar- the approximately 1 billion CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.
row gap, temporarily cut- miles (1.6 billion kilometers) (AP) — The U.S. Postal Ser-
ting off communications. vice is going all out for
“We are just ecstatic,” this summer’s total solar
project science engineer eclipse, with a first-of-its
Jo Pitesky said by phone kind stamp.
from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Just touch the stamp with
Laboratory in Pasadena, your finger, and the heat
California. transforms the image of the
Cassini skimmed 1,900 miles blacked-out sun into the
(3,100 kilometers) above moon. Remove your finger,
Saturn’s cloud tops, clos- and the eclipse reappears.
er than ever before, and The trick is using tempera-
came within 200 miles (320 ture-sensitive ink.q
kilometers) of the inner-
most visible ring. Scientists
say the pictures show de-
These images provided by the U.S. Postal Service shows The To-
tal Solar Eclipse Forever stamp.
Associated Press
