This week, the Cassini spacecraft made its fifth and final flyby of Dione, Saturn’s fourth-largest moon. This image, in which Saturn and its rings can be seen looming behind the moon, was captured in the leadup to the mission’s last close approach, on August 17, 2015.
“I am moved, as I know everyone else is, looking at these exquisite images of Dione’s surface and crescent, and knowing that they are the last we will see of this far-off world for a very long time to come,” said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team lead at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado. “Right down to the last, Cassini has faithfully delivered another extraordinary set of riches. How lucky we have been.”
See the latest images of the flyby released by NASA here.
[NASA]
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