We鈥檙e getting up close and personal with Saturn. These are the first images of the planet taken as the Cassini spacecraft made the first of its 22 planned dives between its rings.
The first dive, which began on聽26 April,聽takes Cassini聽closer than any spacecraft has been before.
These Grand Finale orbits, each taking only six days, will yield a wealth of new information about Saturn.
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While the images are still murky, we can see what are probably聽shadows from the planet鈥檚 rings being cast onto its surface as Cassini rockets through at more than 100, 000 kilometres an hour.
Cassini will, of course, take close-up pictures of Saturn鈥檚 rings and clouds, but it will also map the planet鈥檚 gravity and magnetic fields, giving scientists a window into Saturn鈥檚 interior.
As Cassini swoops between the planet and its rings, it will sample the particles drifting from the rings into the atmosphere and measure how much dust and ice Saturn鈥檚 rings really have.
The end of the Grand Finale mission in September will also be the end of the Cassini spacecraft. Low on fuel, it will crash into Saturn in order to protect the planet鈥檚 moons from contamination by any Earth microbes that may have hitched a ride for all these years.
