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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently shared a stunning photo of Saturn and its iconic rings, which are made up primarily of ice particles and a small amount of rocky debris and dust. The photo, taken by the NASA Solar System Cassini spacecraft, shows the beautiful bands of the planet’s rings.
According to NASA, Saturn has about 146 moons orbiting it, 63 of which are officially named. The spacecraft captured the photo of the planet from a distance of about 581,000 miles (935,000 km) from Saturn.
This black-and-white view of the planet was taken when half of its surface was illuminated by the Sun’s rays. A close look at the photo will help viewers spot Saturn’s moon Pandora, which appears as a tiny dot in the upper right of the image, almost beyond the F ring.
Sharing the image on Instagram, NASA wrote, “The beautiful bands of ice circling Saturn — its iconic rings — stretch beyond the horizon as they move around the planet. This view was taken by the wide-angle camera on the @NASASolarSystem Cassini spacecraft on Aug. 12, 2017.”
NASA photos never fail to amuse people. Many users have shared their thoughts on the NASA photo.
One Instagram user commented on the post, “Saturn is really beautiful.” Many others commented on the post praising the image taken during the Cassini mission to Saturn.
About the Cassini mission to Saturn
Cassini was a joint space program to Saturn by NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The three agencies sent a sophisticated robotic spacecraft named Cassini to study Saturn and its complex system of rings and moons in unprecedented detail.
The spacecraft also carried Huygens, a probe built by ESA, into the Saturn system. Scientists were able to take spectacular pictures of the planet with the help of the probe. Huygens returned spectacular photos and other scientific results during its two-and-a-half-hour descent through the crazy atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan.
The discovery of a global ocean indicating the presence of water on Saturn was one of Cassini’s major discoveries. The mission was completed in 2017. During the mission, scientists discovered icy plumes from cracks on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. These plumes led to the understanding that the moon has a global ocean of liquid water and indicate hydrothermal activity on the sea floor.
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Published: June 27, 2024, 02:04 PM IST
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