NASA's Cassini Spacecraft Skims Saturn's Rings

Today, November 30, 2016, NASA's Cassini mission began a set of ring-grazing orbits, skimming past the outside edge of Saturn's main rings. Now in its final year of operations, this is the closest study of the rings and will offer unprecedented views of moons that orbit near them. These orbits bring Cassini within nearly 5,000 miles of Saturn's F ring, which marks the border of the main ring system.

Transcript

00:00:00 ♪ Cassini's high-flying, ring-grazing orbits. On Nov. 30, 2016 Cassini begins a daring set of ring-grazing orbits skimming past the outside edge of Saturn's main rings. Cassini will fly closer to the rings than it has since its 2004 arrival. Circling high above and below the poles of Saturn grazing their outer edge. Beginning its closest study of the rings.

00:00:44 Offering unprecedented views of moons that orbit near the rings' edges. Best-ever looks at Pandora. Pan. Daphnis. Atlas. Investigating "propeller" features that hint at unseen moonlets. And hunting for signs of meteor impacts into the rings

00:01:24 while they are backlit by the sun. Even more dramatic orbits are ahead that bring Cassini closer to Saturn than any spacecraft has gone before. ♪ NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology.