Unprecedented detailed images of Saturn's icy belt

NASA's Cassini spacecraft recently captured the closest close-up image of Saturn's belt, showing an unprecedented level of detail about this icy belt.

Images are taken when the aircraft flies in the outer orbit of Saturn's main belt system.

The latest photos clearly show details as small as 550m, which is equivalent to observing the tallest buildings of the Earth from space. What you see in the picture is Saturn's belt A - the bright and large belt structure outside, about 134,500km from Saturn.

In this position, Cassini is also close to Saturn's F belt , a belt made up of very small dust particles, which could cause the spacecraft to be struck by not noticing it.

"The material that makes the F belt is very small and thin, just a few microns. We can't see it but can feel it when we hear the sound of them hitting the spacecraft. These particles are so small that even if we collide. "It doesn't affect ships," said Linda Spilker , a scientist with the Cassini mission.

What you see in the picture is Saturn's belt A - the bright and large belt structure is at the far end.

The Cassini ship actually went near this thin belt the first time it flew to Saturn 13 years ago. But now, for some reason, the image quality is not good.

In 2004, the ship moved at a very fast speed due to the fact that it had to travel millions of kilometers on a journey, so the ship only took a single photo, not the exposure. The single pictures are not high quality due to lack of light, do not highlight the subject.

Now, the ship has reached a stable speed, slower than the first years. The images of the ship capture long exposures, making the image gain more light and bring higher details.

The Cassini spacecraft will begin its swirling death from April 26, and it will continue to fall 22 rounds on Saturn, flying through the gap between Saturn and the satellites.

During these falling cycles, it will look at the universe for the last time by recording images at extremely close distances and at unprecedented angles of view, then officially leave the orbit and crash slam into Saturn's thick gas surface on September 15. It will flash like a meteor when it rushes to Saturn with great speed.

"When entering the final days of the mission, it is better that we let the aircraft fly away to get a better view of Saturn that we have not recorded before," the chief The image team of the Cassini mission, Carolyn Porco from the Boulder Space Science Research Institute in Colorado, said.

Why didn't NASA let Cassini continue to fly after finishing his mission like the Voyager spacecraft - now flying off the Solar System? Because two icy satellites Enceladus and Titan are capable of surviving liquid water, the potential of life exists, so NASA wants to avoid the risk that Cassini will crash into these two satellites, causing them to be infected with the bacteria from the Left. Land.