NASA's Cassini spacecraft recently captured stunning close-ups of Saturn’s icy rings.
The spacecraft, which is currently in its “ring-grazing” phase of orbit around the planet, is heading towards its final phase when it will burn up in Saturn's upper atmosphere later this year, NASA said in a statement.
The photos offer researchers the closest view of the outer parts of Saturn's main rings ever seen, according to NASA. The spacecraft will continue to take photos of the rings and the gas giant's moons until April.
"How fitting it is that we should go out with the best views of Saturn's rings we've ever collected," Cassini Imaging Team Lead Carolyn Porco, of Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo., said in a statement.
The new photos show details in the rings, which haven't been visible since the spacecraft arrived in 2004, according to NASA.
"At that time, fine details like straw and propellers -- which are caused by clumping ring particles and small, embedded moonlets, respectively — had never been seen before," NASA said in a statement.
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Launched in 1997, Cassini has been studying Saturn and its moons since 2004. The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency.
