Cassini's First Dive A Success, Now It's Looking Towards Its Second • Capital Wired

Cassini’s first dive between Saturn and its rings sent back astounding images and eerie recordings.

Cassini’s first dive between the planet Saturn and its rings has sent back not only some astounding images, but unbelievably eerie sound recordings as well. While there, the spacecraft found mostly open space with little or no obstructions between the outer atmosphere and the inner ring. Based on this, scientists at NASA have huge hopes for the twenty-one dives yet to come, especially Cassini’s next dip.

After Astounding NASA With Its First Dive, Cassini Prepares for a Second One

The photos from Cassini’s first dive are amazing. Towering clouds of gas spiral up toward the brilliant rings. Dozens came back, but only a few have been released so far. More are expected on the next dive.Cassini also recorded audio from the trip. Originally, scientists thought they would hear the sound of dust hitting the ship, which could damage or even destroy the hardy craft. However, they discovered what some are calling “the big empty“.

The spacecraft only found open space between the rings and the planet, a pleasant surprise. Especially so for the remainder of its mission. The sounds recorded resemble wind whistling past a jetliner, with strange whistles and crackles in the background.

“Cassini will stay the course,” said project manager Earl Maize of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), “while the scientists work on the mystery of why the dust level is much lower than expected.”

Now the craft will prepare for dive number two, which begins at 20:38 GMT on Tuesday. As with the first one, Cassini will be out of contact as it makes its maneuver between the planet and its rings.

Those rings will be the focus of its studies, as will special movements to calibrate its magnetometer. It will emerge from radio silence on May 3rd. Then, it will then begin transmission to Earth of its next batch of data. Undoubtedly, more exotic sights and sounds will be in store for Saturn-watchers and space enthusiasts.

Image Source: NASA

Brian Galloway

Brian’s philosophy is pretty straightforward: easy living, wishful thinking, heavy criticizing. Despite the fact that he wouldn’t go as far as describe himself a conspirationist, Brian does take everything with a grain of sand. He loves following every lead when covering a story and mostly enjoys to cover politics and US news.