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A spacecraft looks down on a soft gold-colored Saturn surrounded by its rings.

Cassini's Farewell to Saturn

NASA’s Cassini was the fourth spacecraft to study Saturn up close, and on July 1, 2004, Cassini became the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn. It spent more than a decade making discoveries about Saturn and its system of rings and moons. On Sept. 15, 2017, Cassini ended its mission with a spectacular, planned plunge into Saturn’s atmosphere – sending science data back to the last second. This image captured one of Cassini’s last looks at Saturn and its main rings from a distance.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
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