NASA Saturn Mission Prepares for 'Ring-Grazing Orbits'

Pierre Markuse

Now in its final year of operations, on November 30, 2016, NASA’s Cassini mission will begin a daring set of ring-grazing orbits, skimming past the outside edge of Saturn's main rings (https://goo.gl/4t2E5g). Cassini will fly closer to Saturn’s rings than it has since its 2004 arrival and later orbits will bring it closer to Saturn than any spacecraft has dared to go before.
On many of these passes, Cassini's instruments will attempt to directly sample ring particles and molecules of faint gases that are found close to the rings. During the first two orbits, the spacecraft will pass directly through an extremely faint ring produced by tiny meteors striking the two small moons Janus(https://goo.gl/7PkHSq) and Epimetheus(https://goo.gl/0c7rpA). Ring crossings in March and April will send the spacecraft through the dusty outer reaches of the F ring.
More information here:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-saturn-mission-prepares-for-ring-grazing-orbits
Video: Cassini’s High-Flying, Ring-Grazing Orbits
https://youtu.be/gj8l2f9prYk
More on the Cassini spacecraft:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini%E2%80%93Huygens
Image credit: Saturn's rings were named alphabetically in the order they were discovered. The narrow F ring marks the outer boundary of the main ring system.NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute