ON 1 July, the Cassini spacecraft will reach Saturn. Its 3.5-billion kilometre journey from Earth has taken nearly seven years, but an hour-and-a-half will decide the fate of the spacecraft as it zips through Saturn’s rings, turns around and fires its engine to insert itself into orbit around the planet.
In the hours after the burn, Cassini will be at its closest ever to Saturn, giving it a glorious view of the planet’s rings. The images it sends back will tell us about the rings’ structure, age and possible future. Mapping the planet’s magnetic field will tell us about its…
