Latest images sent by NASA's Saturn probe Cassini spacecraft show its proximity to the outer rings of the planet since it started the penultimate mission on Nov. 30.
The first views from the new orbit around Saturn are borne by a series of daredevil maneuvers by Cassini that is set to go on for the next nine months before it ends life in the atmosphere of Saturn by September 2017.
The new photos mainly show the hexagon-shaped storm in Saturn's northern hemisphere.
According to NASA, the photos of Saturn were taken with the Cassini spacecraft's wide-angle camera on Dec. 2, 2016, from a distance of about 400,000 miles (640,000 kilometers).
They show Saturn's northern hemisphere and rings as perceived from four different spectral filters that are sensitive to lights of different wavelength and revealed clouds and hazes.
What Next?
The present phase of Cassini will last for 5 months until April with each new orbit around Saturn taking an average one week with a target of total 20 orbits in this configuration,
During the period, the spacecraft will stay above Saturn's northern hemisphere before going to the outer edges of the planet's main rings by April-end.
The upcoming passes of Cassini will be special with images from the near close approach including those proximate views of the outer rings and small moons of Saturn.
The Dec. 11 pass will be important as it may give a view of the rings' outer edges. The ring-grazing orbits will continue until April 22, with a last close flyby of Saturn's moon Titan.
After that encounter, Cassini's grand finale will start and it will leap over the rings to plunge through the 1,500-mile-wide (2,400-kilometer) gap between Saturn and its innermost ring on April 26.
Ring-Grazing Orbits
NASA said it would release more images from future passes covering closest views of the outer rings and small moons orbiting there.
"This is it, the beginning of the end of our historic exploration of Saturn," commented, Carolyn Porco, the head of Cassini's imaging team.
"Let these images - and those to come - remind you that we've lived a bold and daring adventure around the Solar System's most magnificent planet," Porco added.
Cassini Demise In 2017
Cassini's demise in September will be a fall out of the fuel exhaustion.
However, NASA has concerns that the probe will indeed crash into one of Saturn's moons at some point in the future.
The worry is that many of those moons including Enceladus are targets searched for extra-terrestrial life and fear is that such a destructive crash might contaminate those bodies with terrestrial microbes coming from Cassini.
If all goes well, Cassini's grand finale will make it dive through the 2,400km gap between the planet to crash into the atmosphere of Saturn by Sept. 15.
