Cassinis Last Ring Portrait at Saturn How should Cassini say farewell to Saturn? Three days before plunging into Saturn's sunny side, the robotic #Cassini spacecraft swooped far behind Saturn's night side with cameras blazing. Thirty-six of these #images have been merged -- by an alert and adept citizen scientist -- into a last full-ring portrait of Cassini's home planet for the past 13 years. The Sun is just above the frame, causing #Saturn to cast a dark shadow onto its enormous rings. This shadow position cannot be imaged from #Earth and will not be visible again until another Earth-launched spaceship visits the ringed giant. Data and images from Cassini's mission-e nding dive into Saturn's atmosphere on September 15 continue to be analyzed.

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