Captured by the Cassini spacecraft at only 267,000 kilometers above the planet, the image that heads this post is the clouds over Saturn’s north pole.
Cassini
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured this view of Saturn’s north pole on April 26, 2017. Cassini’s long mission to Saturn allowed the spacecraft to see the Sun rise over the north, revealing that region in great detail for the first time. .
The scale of the image, showing the towering vortex at its center, is 10 miles per pixel, according to NASA .
Cassini was launched in 1997 and has orbited Saturn since 2004. On September 15, it will plunge for the last time between the planet’s rings and crash into it in a controlled manner . Four days before he will make his last flight, dubbed the "goodbye kiss."