Saturn's rings: a panoramic perspective.Sailing high above Saturn, NASA'S Cassini spacecraft spacecraft Vehicle designed to operate, with or without a crew, in a controlled flight pattern above Earth's lower atmosphere. Since streamlining is not needed in the high vacuum of this environment, a spacecraft's shape is designed according to its mission (see recently made this sweeping portrait of the icy rings that girdle girdle /gir·dle/ (gir´d'l) cingulum; an encircling structure or part; anything encircling a body. pectoral girdle shoulder g. the planet. "It's a view that no human has had before, nor a spacecraft," says Cassini scientist Carolyn Porco Carolyn C. Porco is an American planetary scientist and the leader of the imaging science team on the Cassini mission[1],[2],[3] presently in orbit around Saturn. of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. From a vantage point 40[degrees] above the equator, Cassini captured the rings' full breadth as well as Saturn's shadow across them. By combining the views from several perspectives, Cassini is indicating the ring particles' texture and density. The craft has toured Saturn for nearly 3 years. Released by NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. on March 1, this mosaic of 36 images was recorded on Jan. 29, when the craft was 1.23 million kilometers from the planet. |
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