On 6 December, the Cassini spacecraft sent back the first photos since starting its closest orbits yet to Saturn’s rings.
This penultimate phase of Cassini’s mission, called the Ring-Grazing Orbits, started on 30 November and will send Cassini on 20 week-long trips soaring above Saturn’s northern hemisphere before gliding back down just outside the planet’s main rings.
These new images were taken on 2 and 3 December, about two days before the first ring-grazing approach to the planet, as Cassini flew over the northern hemisphere’s strange hexagonal jet stream. The hexagon is caused by a powerful wind current and churns constantly, rotating once every 10 and a half hours around the colossal hurricane at its centre.
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