Passing through Saturn's rings: Cassini's last mission

These pictures show: Cassini has survived the dive between Saturn and its rings and completed that part of its complicated mission. There was no contact between mission control and the space craft during the maneuver. There are 21 more dives like this one scheduled until mid-September. Cassini will take a special place in space history!

"No spacecraft has ever flown through this unique region," NASA administrator Thomas Zurbuchen said. "The information we'll gather from Cassini's daring final loops will improve our understanding of how giant planets and planetary systems are born. It's truly discovery in action until the very end."

There's a gap of roughly 2,400 kilometers (1,490 miles) between gas giant Saturn and his rings. "Based on our models we expect this gap to be free of particles that would be big enough to do damage to our spacecraft," NASA project manager Earl Maize said. "There's definitely some things we don't know - but that's one of the reasons we're doing risky research like this at the end of the mission."

Cassini has delivered spectacular pictures over the last 20 years. This image taken by the spacecraft shows Saturn's rotating storm clouds over the planet's north pole. Measurements have shown that the vortex has a diameter of 2,000 kilometers (1243 miles). The clouds in it are whipped around by the wind with a speed of up to 540 kilometers per hour (335 miles per hour).

You can hardly tell it's there, but the arrow in this wide angle shot taken by Cassini marks our Earth - a tiny dot because the picture was taken from very, very far away. The distance between the spacecraft and Earth was roughly 1.44 billion kilometers. Saturn and its rings can be seen in the foreground.

From hot to cold: The colors show the unusual temperature patterns on Saturn's Mimas and Thetys moons. The data for this image was captured by the spacecraft's infrared camera.

Cassini has also collected data from Saturn moon Enceladus. Experts believe there are water molecules on the icy satellite. Researchers see this as proof that energy is created on Enceladus. This means that life on the satellite would theoretically be possible.

Also among Cassini's spectacular discoveries: the liquid methane lakes on Titan. Saturn's largest moon was discovered in 1655 by Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens. It's still interesting to researchers today: Cassini spent more than ten years around Titan.

This view, composed of images taken by Cassini's wide-angle camera, is reminiscent of a large river. The images actually show clouds in Saturn's northern hemisphere. The final picture was made using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to infrared light.

If things go according to plan, Cassini's life will end on September 15. The 12,600-kilogramm spacecraft will start its controlled plunge toward Saturn 20 years after the mission began - and it will keep sending data to Earth until the very end. "Cassini will make some of its most amazing discoveries at the end of its long life," NASA researcher Linda Spilker said.