Ring Around the Planet: Cassini's First Images of Saturn from Orbit


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This is a narrow angle camera image of Saturn's rings taken by Cassinia after its successful completion of the orbit insertion burn when it was cruising over the planet's rings. Credit: Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Another narrow angle camera image of Saturn's rings taken by Cassini after its successful completion of the orbit insertion burn. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Another narrow angle camera image of Saturn's rings taken by Cassini after its successful completion of the orbit insertion burn. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

This image shows in superb detail the region in Saturn's rings known as the Encke Gap. It was taken by the narrow angle camera on the Cassini spacecraft after successful entry into Saturn's orbit. The view shows the sunlit side of the rings. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

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	Ring Around the Planet: Cassini's First Images of Saturn from Orbit By Leonard David Senior Space Writer posted: 12:50 pm ET 1 July 2004

Hours after entering orbit around Saturn, the international Cassini-Huygens spacecraft has relayed its first images.

The international $3.3 billion mission completed its 96-minute Saturn Orbit Insertion rocket burn at roughly 12:12 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, early Thursday morning. The successful maneuver sparked applause, handshakes and hugs from flight controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

In reaching its initial orbit, Cassini started an initial four-year odyssey of the giant planet, its majestic rings and family of moons.One by one the raw, unprocessed images from Cassini began to reach JPL mission control.

Close-up photo of Saturn’s ring system started to reveal exciting features, said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader from the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

“They are just beautiful. They are very sharp,” Porco said. “We’re going to have a field day with these.”

Density waving

In several images, Porco said that density waves in the rings appear to have been captured. A density wave is caused by a small moon that yields a gravitational perturbation on the ring particles. Those particles then array themselves in a very coherent fashion, making a wave through the rings.

“This looks like it could be that,” Porco added. “I’m proud to say that I took these pictures…these are just remarkable.”

Porco said that there is already a push by scientists to return to Saturn with a mission that would actually hover above the rings and view how Saturn’s mostly icy ring particles interact.

Clues to planet formation

At a press briefing today at JPL, scientists reiterated that they see phenomena never before imaged, captured in the first batch of 61 Cassini photos.

“This is not animation…this is not power point,” explained NASA’s Edward Weiler Associate Administrator for Space Science.

Weiler added: “The studies we’re doing at Saturn go well beyond the understanding of ring systems. It could tell us a lot about how planets form around other stars.”

“We think we’re seeing in Saturn’s rings some of the processes that went on in the solar nebula before the planets formed,” Porco explained. “In fact, we may be seeing some of the processes that actually aided the development of the planets.”

Ringscapes

Dominating today’s JPL press briefing were first close-up pictures of “ringscapes” , along with small sheparding moons that tend Saturn’s rings.

In one striking blowup, Porco pointed out what almost looks like straw, clumps of material within Saturn’s A Ring. “I don’t know what this is…I literally don’t have a clue.”

“The beauty and clarity of these images…they are shocking to me,” Porco said. “We are seeing structure, literally, that we’ve never imaged before.”

Porco said that pictures to be taken by Cassini during the next four years will be roughly 300,000 in number, equaling about 100 a day, sometimes more, sometimes less.

Cassini in excellent shape

Robert Mitchell, Cassini program manager said that a status-check on the Cassini spacecraft after maneuvering into orbit shows the machine is in excellent shape.

“There was not a single red alarm. Not a single indication of any fault activity and no subsystem had any anomalies,” Mitchell said. “So the spacecraft status is that it’s just perfect.”

Mitchell said Cassini was right on target entering Saturn orbit. A decision is forthcoming whether or not a trajectory clean-up maneuver, set for the weekend, will be needed.

“The navigation status is excellent. We couldn’t have asked for anything better than what we’ve got,” Mitchell added.

NASA doing it right

The Cassini mission will face another dramatic challenge in December, when the spacecraft will release the piggybacked Huygens probe -- provided by the European Space Agency -- which will plummet through the hazy atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan.

Shortly after Cassini began orbiting Saturn, David Southwood, director of scientific programs for the European Space Agency noted: “This was America's night. This was NASA doing it right,” he said.

“They really gave those of us in Europe a challenge. We've got six months to go until we land on Titan. We're just praying that everything will go as well.”

Close-up science

Cassini traveled nearly 2.2 billion miles (3.5 billion kilometers) to reach Saturn after its departure from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on Oct. 15, 1997. During Cassini's primary four-year mission, it will execute 52 close encounters with seven of Saturn's 31 known moons.

Science measurements gathered by Cassini as it powered itself into Saturn orbit are the closest ever obtained of the planet. Those measurements may reveal details of the gravitational and magnetic fields that tell scientists about the interior of the giant world.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science in Washington, D.C. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter.

Cassini Special Report