This is an artist's rendition of Cassini's arrival at Saturn in 2004. Sunlight glints off the the spacecraft's magnetometer boom in the lower right.
Click on image for full size
Image courtesy NASA.
Cassini approaches Saturn's Moon Phoebe
News story originally written on June 11, 2004
The Cassini spacecraft, en route to Saturn, will zoom past Saturn's odd moon
Phoebe on June 11, 2004. Cassini will pass within 2,000 km (1,243 miles) of
the moon's surface and should send back images with a resolution of 0.3 to
2.1 km (0.2 to 1.3 miles) per pixel. Those should be about 1,000 times
better than our best current images of Phoebe, which were captured by Voyager
2 in September 1981.
A few weeks later, Cassini will end its long journey to Saturn, begun in October
1997 with its liftoff from Florida. On July 1, 2004, Cassini will fire its main
engine for 96 minutes to slow itself down and
go into orbit around Saturn. It will study Saturn, several of its moons, and
its amazing ring system for the next four years.
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