NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft Does Saturn Proud
That video, compiled from thousands of still images from the Cassini spacecraft is a wonder to behold. And that is just the appetizer to the latest image.
Taken by NASA’s Cassini robotic orbiter, the shot was captured from the dark side of Saturn as the Sun’s bright rays illuminated every piece of dust and debris circling the planet. Cassini has offered astronomers a never-before-seen look at Saturn and revealed more information about the planet than any craft before it. The craft has taken so many pictures of the ringed wonder that they were recently made into a short flyby film that looks like it was created by George Lucas rather than a robotic space explorer.
The Cassini probe was launched in 1997 and took a further 7 years to reach Saturn’s orbit. The total cost of its overarching objective of studying the ringed planet stands at a staggering $3.26 billion. However, the wealth of information it has wrought — including amazing pictures like the one above, and recordings of massive lightning storms on the planet — have already made it one of the best investments in space exploration.
If you focus on the $3.26 billion you might think that it wasn’t worth it, but this is basic science here - it’s about learning about the origins of the solar system, our own planet, and the search for life on extraterrestrial bodies, including several moons in our own solar system - Titan comes to mind.