Skip Navigation
menu close modal

Resources

Grand Finale Orbits Petal Plot

Source: NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory - Caltech / Erick Sturm
Published: March 24, 2017

Cassini mission planners created this animation to showcase Cassini's final 22 orbits - the mission's Grand Finale.

Related

Enceladus is a small ocean world covered in ice -- one of more than 60 confirmed moons orbiting Saturn.
More
infographic of Enceladus
Infographic: 8 Real World Science Facts About Enceladus
Explore the process that Johannes Kepler undertook when he formulated his three laws of planetary motion.
More
Explore the process that Johannes Kepler undertook when he formulated his three laws of planetary motion.
Orbits and Kepler's Laws
Meet Lucy as she prepares for the first journey to the Trojan asteroids, small bodies orbiting in tandem with Jupiter.
More
Video about Lucy mission to the trojan asteroids
Lucy's Journey: Episode 2 - 'The Adventure Begins'
No one really knew what Vesta looked like until NASA’s Dawn spacecraft decided to drop in on it. Now, images taken by the spacecraft have been stitched together to create a virtual flyover of the j...
More
Flyover simulator of Vesta.
Meet Vesta
SDO collected images of the rarest predictable solar event—the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun in 2012.
More
On June 5, 2012, SDO collected images of the rarest predictable solar event—the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun.
Venus Transit Across the Sun (2014)
Orange and white stripes slide against each other, and huge oval storms  gyrate in the NASA's Cassini spacecraft's first color movie clip of Jupiter.  
More
Cassini's First Color Movie
Cassini's First Color Movie of Jupiter
What's Up for August? This month our main focus is the Perseid meteor shower.
More
Video describing a meteor shower and other celestial objects visible in the night sky.
What's Up Video: August 2019 Skywatching Tips from NASA
This image compares midday temperatures on Saturn's moon Iapetus, recorded by the composite infrared spectrometer instrument during Cassini's close Sept. 10, 2007 flyby, with images of the same reg...
More
Views of Iapetus
Warm and Dry on Iapetus
Happy Holidays from the Planetary Science Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
More
Illustration of holiday lights and spacecraft in snowglobes.
Happy Holidays 2016 - Solar System Edition
Ben Holt tells how he fell in love with the ocean as a teenager and how that lead to a career as a research scientist.
More
Ben Holt tells how he fell in love with the ocean as a teenager and how that lead to a career as a research scientist.
Through the Eyes of Scientists - Meet Ben Holt
Diagram of the Cassini spacecraft and Huygens probe.
More
X
Cassini Diagram No. 6
The Psyche spacecraft includes many unavoidable magnetic field sources, which must be accounted for to measure the magnetic field signature of the Psyche metal-rich asteroid.
More
Still image and video showing a concentrations of magnetic energy around parts of the Psyche spacecraft.
Magnetic Field of the Psyche Spacecraft
As depicted in this illustration, Cassini will plunge into Saturn’s atmosphere on Sept. 15, 2017.
More
Illustration of Cassini entering Saturn's atmosphere.
Cassini Versus Saturn (Illustration)
Release of Probe
More
Release of Probe
Release of Probe
Look for Mars close to the Pleiades in the first weeks of March. Then wake up early to observe the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn.
More
Video describing things to see in the night sky.
What's Up: March 2021 [Video]
Cassini mission leads Earl Maize and Linda Spilker talked about the spacecraft's epic journey and science - and the exciting two-part grand finale.
More
Video about Cassini's grand finale at Saturn.
Revealing Saturn: Cassini's Grand Finale (Video)
This still from a movie shows an image taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft layered on a digital terrain model of an unusual hill containing a dark-rayed impact crater and nearby dark deposit on asteroi...
More
Dark Hill on Asteroid Vesta Movie
Dark Hill on Asteroid Vesta Movie
While NASA's Cassini spacecraft was pointed to study Saturn's F ring, it happened to catch a globular star cluster passing through the camera's field of view.
More
While NASA’s Cassini spacecraft was pointed to study Saturn's F ring, it happened to catch a globular star cluster passing through the camera's field of view.
Catching a Cluster of Stars
In lab experiments NASA scientists matched the spectral signature of an unknown material the Cassini spacecraft detected in Titan's atmosphere at far-infrared wavelengths.
More
Titan's vibrating aerosol molecules
Vibrating Aerosol Molecules on Titan
~3.5 minute video explains how Earth's magnetosphere protects us from the fury of the Sun and is essential in allowing Earth to develop into a habitable planet.
More
Title "ScienceCasts: Earth's Magnetosphere" on the right side of the image with a hexagonal, starry pattern, and a small blue and green Earth on the bottom left with rounded lines exploding out from it
NASA ScienceCasts: Earth's Magnetosphere
+ Non-annotated version This false-color view of Saturn's moon Mimas from NASA's Cassini spacecraft accentuates terrain-dependent color differences and shows dark streaks running down the sides ...
More
This false-color view of Mimas accentuates terrain-dependent color differences and shows dark streaks running down the sides of some of the craters
Color Near Herschel Crater (annotated)
This artist’s concept shows an over-the-shoulder view of Cassini making one of its Grand Finale dives over Saturn.
More
Illustration of spacecraft over Saturn.
Cassini Grand Finale Concept
This still is from a short computer-animated film that highlights Cassini's accomplishments and Saturn and reveals the science-packed final orbits between April and September 2017. Download the vi...
More
Ring Gap
Ring Gap
Like boot prints on the Moon, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft left its mark on asteroid Bennu. Now, new images — taken during the spacecraft's final fly-over on April 7, 2021 — reveal the aftermath of...
More
OSIRIS-REx Leaves its Mark on Bennu
OSIRIS-REx Leaves its Mark on Asteroid Bennu
Sending the first Artemis mission to the Moon in preparation for human missions, landing a new rover on Mars, and launching the James Webb Space Telescope into space, expanding our ability to see d...
More
NASA in 2021
NASA in 2021

You Might Also Like