Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Cassini's F ring and proximal ("Grand Finale") orbits

Cassini's F ring and proximal ("Grand Finale") orbits
Cassini's F ring and proximal ("Grand Finale") orbits Near the end of its mission, Cassini will reduce its periapsis to come close to the F ring for 20 orbits (green) and then dive between Saturn and the D ring (blue) in the F ring and "Grand Finale" phases of the mission. Periapse happens at local noon on Saturn, providing the best possible gravity measurements, in order for Cassini to study the mass of the rings and the internal structure of Saturn, much as Juno will be doing at Jupiter at the same time. NASA / JPL-Caltech