Saturn's rings fan out beautifully in new photo
Saturn's dazzling rings stretch out in a new photo taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
Cassini snapped the unprocessed image on Jan. 28 as the spacecraft observed Saturn and its distinctive rings, and it was received on the ground on Jan. 29.
According to NASA, Cassini has taken more than 360,000 images since the spacecraft got to Saturn in 2004.
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And this won't be the last image Cassini beams home from the ringed world.
Cassini will begin a series of flybys of Saturn's largest moon Titan starting Monday, NASA said.
The spacecraft is still trucking along in the planetary system, observing Saturn and its 62 known moons. Cassini should continue on in its mission until about 2017, when the craft is expected to run out of fuel, making a planned death-dive into Saturn's atmosphere.
Before that, however, Cassini will dive between Saturn's body and its ring plane, getting some incredible close-up observation as part of its grand finale in orbit.
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Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
