STILL 70 million kilometres from Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft is already delivering crisp images of the ringed planet. Bands in Saturn’s atmosphere are becoming visible in this picture, taken on 9 February, and the ice moon Enceladus appears as a white speck on the left. More striking are differences between the rings: the thick central B ring blocks out all features on the planet behind, unlike the tenuous inner C ring and the outer A ring.
Cassini is a joint US-European mission, launched in 1997 and due to enter Saturn’s orbit in early July. Over the next four years it…
