Saturn and its many rings came into brilliant focus when NASA’s Cassini spacecraft sent a new series of images across 800 million miles. Nuclear-powered instruments onboard the spacecraft made the data transfer possible.

In a mosaic created from 25 images taken by Cassini’s visual and infrared mapping spectrometer over a period of 13 hours, the spacecraft captured Saturn and its rings in both nighttime and daytime conditions. Three radioisotope thermoelectric generators—commonly referred to as RTGs—provide power for the spacecraft, including the instruments like the spectrometer, as well as computers and radio transmitters.

Radioisotopes provide power to the RTGs. As the radioisotopes decay, they release heat, which the generators convert into electricity.

The Cassini obtained the mosaic’s images when the spacecraft was about 1 million miles from the planet.

Although it is the fourth NASA explorer to reach the ringed planet, the Cassini spacecraft is the first to explore Saturn’s system of rings and moons. Cassini entered orbit in 2004 and immediately began sending back intriguing images and data. The European Space Agency’s Huygens probe, Cassini’s companion spacecraft, dove into Titan’s thick atmosphere in 2005. The sophisticated instruments on both spacecraft are providing scientists with vital data and the best views ever of this mysterious, vast region of our solar system.
 
Cassini-Huygens is an international collaboration between three space agencies. Besides NASA and the European Space Agency, the Italian Space Agency provided one of Cassini’s communication antennae.

More than 250 scientists worldwide are studying the data streaming back from Saturn on a daily basis.