Cassini Looks Out from Saturn

From inside the rings, this is whatSaturn looks like. For the first time in history, NASA directed a space craft to swoop between the planets. Hundreds of images were taken during the dive by the robotic vehicle. Looking back out, the craft was able to capture some great views. The featured image was taken a few hours before the closest approach and shows the unusual northern hexagon. The closest visible ring is the B ring, while the furthest ring is the F ring. After more than a decade of exploration and discovery, the Cassini spacecraft ran low on fuel and was directed to enter the atmosphere ofSaturn, where it melted.

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Explanation: Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was discovered by astronomers using the wide-field survey camera at the Zwicky Transient Facility this year in early March. Since then the new long-period comet has brightened substantially and is now sweeping across the northern constellation Corona Borealis in predawn skies. It's still too dim to see without a telescope though. But this fine telescopic image from December 19 does show the comet's brighter greenish coma, short broad dust tail, and long faint ion tail stretching across a 2.5 degree wide field-of-view. On a voyage through the inner Solar System comet 2022 E3 will be at perihelion, its closest to the Sun, in the new year on January 12 and at perigee, its closest to our fair planet, on February 1. The brightness of comets is notoriously unpredictable, but by then C/2022 E3 (ZTF) could become only just visible to the eye in dark night skies.