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Deep Dive: Cassini Grand Finale (Artist's Concept)

Illustration of spacecraft at Saturn.
Source: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Published: March 23, 2016

Artist's concept of Cassini orbiter diving between Saturn's inntermost rings and cloud tops.

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This graphic illustrates Cassini's trajectory, or flight path, during the final two phases of its mission. The 20 Ring-Grazing Orbits are shown in gray; the 22 Grand Finale Orbits are shown in blue...
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Illustration showing Cassini orbits around Saturn.
Final Phases: Cassini Grand Finale (Artist's Concept)
This graphic shows the trajectories for the Cassini spacecraft during its flybys of the icy moon Enceladus through the 21st planned targeted encounter. With the exception of E-12, E-13, and E-16...
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Diagram showing the relative position of the close Enceladus fly-bys E-11 through E-21.
Cassini's E-12 through E-21 Trajectories
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Saturn Poster
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Saturn Poster
Saturn Poster
+ View Non-Annotated Version Heat radiating from the entire length of 150 kilometer (95 mile)-long fractures is seen in this best-yet heat map of the active south polar region of Saturn's ice mo...
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Annotated heat map of the active south polar region of Enceladus
Jet Spots in Tiger Stripes (Annotated)
Enceladus is a small ocean world covered in ice -- one of more than 60 confirmed moons orbiting Saturn.
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infographic of Enceladus
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Analysis of periodicities in Saturn kilometric radiation reveals two periods as indicated in this display. The kilometric radio emissions coming from the Northern hemisphere have a period near 10.6...
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Analysis of periodicities in Saturn kilometric radiation reveals two periods as indicated in this display.
Modulation Periods of Saturn Kilometertic Radiation
Radio signals sent by NASA's Cassini spacecraft to Earth through Saturn's rings revealed the presence of highly unusual regular formations of densely grouped ring particles. The harmonic ring struc...
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Artist's representation of radio signals passing from the Cassini spacecraft, through Saturn's rings, and onto a satellite dish on earth.
Saturn's Ring Rhythm
This artist's concept shows "tides" on Titan raised by Saturn's gravity, as detected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Saturn's gravitational pull on Titan, its largest moon, varies as Titan orbits ...
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This artist's concept shows "tides" on Titan raised by Saturn's gravity, as detected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
Squeezing and Stretching Titan
This is an artist's concept of Saturn's rings and major icy moons. Saturn's rings make up an enormous, complex structure. From edge-to-edge, the ring system would not even fit in the distance be...
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This is an artist's concept of Saturn's rings and major icy moons.
Saturn's Rings
Three new small lakes, 100 to 300 square miles (a few hundreds of square kilometers) in surface area, have been identified on Saturn's moon Titan in data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. In the imag...
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Titan
A Sprinkling of Little Lakes
This artist’s concept shows an over-the-shoulder view of Cassini making one of its Grand Finale dives over Saturn.
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Illustration of spacecraft over Saturn.
Cassini Grand Finale Concept 2
Presented here is a complete set of cartographic map sheets from a high-resolution atlas of Saturn's moon Mimas. The atlas is a product of the imaging team working with NASA's Cassini spacecraft. ...
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Mimas -- Accolon
The Mimas Atlas -- Accolon
+ Brightening Adiri -- Unannotated Images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft show changes caused by methane rain in the bright Adiri region near the equator of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Altho...
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Images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft show changes caused by methane rain in the bright Adiri region near the equator of Saturn's largest moon, Titan.
Brightening Adiri -- Annotated
See also the non-annotated version. Astronomers have long known that Saturn's rings reflect sunlight most strongly when Earth is located directly between Saturn and the sun. Flat, shiny surfaces (...
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Saturn's rings during specular reflection
Cat's eye rings and peek-a-boo shadows (annotated)
+ View unannotated version The vast hydrocarbon seas and lakes (dark shapes) near the north pole of Saturn's moon Titan sprawl out beneath the watchful eye of NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Scientis...
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The vast hydrocarbon seas and lakes (dark shapes) near the north pole of Saturn's moon Titan sprawl out beneath the watchful eye of NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
Bird's Eye View of the Land of Lakes -- Annotated
+ Unannotated Version The northern and southern hemispheres of Enceladus are seen in these polar stereographic maps, mosaicked from the best-available Cassini clear-filter images. Each map is...
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The northern and southern hemispheres of Enceladus are seen in these polar stereographic maps, mosaicked from the best-available Cassini clear-filter images.
Enceladus Polar Maps - December 2011 -- South -- Annotated
+ Full Resolution (28 MB, JPG) From more than 40 countries and 30 U.S. states, people around the world shared more than 1,400 images of themselves as part of the Wave at Saturn event organized b...
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This graphic depicts Cassini's interplanetary flight path beginning with launch from Earth on 15 October 1997, followed by gravity assist flybys of Venus (26 April 1998 and 21 June 1999), Earth (18...
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Illustration of Cassini trajectory to Saturn.
Cassini Trajectory
This map of the surface of Saturn's moon Mimas illustrates the regions that were imaged by Cassini during the spacecraft's flyby of the moon on Aug. 2, 2005. At closest approach, the spacecraft pas...
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Mimas
Mimas: Closer Than Ever Before
Presented here is a complete set of cartographic map sheets from a high-resolution Tethys atlas, a project of the Cassini Imaging Team. The map sheets form a 15-quadrangle series covering the en...
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Tethys atlas
The Tethys Atlas
Jets of high-density gas detected by Cassini's Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph on Saturn's moon Enceladus match the locations of dust jets determined from Cassini images, labeled here with Roman n...
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Graphic of jets of high-density gas detected by Cassini on Enceladus
Gas and Dust Jets Match Up
​On the final orbit, Cassini will plunge into Saturn fighting to keep its antenna pointed at Earth as it transmits its farewell. In the skies of Saturn, the journey ends, as Cassini becomes part of...
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Short animation depicting Cassini's entry in the atmosphere.
Cassini's Final Plunge
This graphic shows the trajectories for the Cassini spacecraft during its flybys of the icy moon Enceladus on Oct. 9 and 31, 2008. The Oct. 9 flyby is the closest flyby yet of any moon of Saturn...
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Cassini trajectories past Enceldus Oct. 9 and 31, 2008.
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One of the glittering trails caused by small objects punching through Saturn's F ring is highlighted in this movie from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. These trails show how the F ring, the outermost of...
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One of the glittering trails caused by small objects punching through Saturn's F ring is highlighted in this movie from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
Glittering Trail in Saturn's F Ring

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