If you like astronomy news, you should know that NASA's Cassini spacecraft is nearing the end of its mission on Saturn - where it has been in orbit since 2004 collecting information about the Lord of the Rings of the Solar System.

For the farewell of the little ship has begun. Before making her final (and suicidal) dive into the planet's atmosphere, scheduled for September 15, she must make a series of 22 dives through the space between the famous rings and Saturn. The first one happened midway through last week and the images taken by the diligent probe are amazing! Check it out:

Buzzing through the rings

Astronomical feat

According to Sarah Kaplan of The Washington Post, this is the first time a man-made device has come so close to Saturn's rings, and don't think it's an easy task. When it recorded the image above, Cassini traveled at 124, 000 kilometers per hour through particle-filled regions that could potentially destroy it.

Another Cassini Record

Thus, to conduct the dive, the equipment used its own disk-shaped antenna as a shield, a maneuver that in turn interrupted communication with Earth temporarily until the probe completed its passage - which left a portion of Astronomers at NASA Control Center with heart in hand. Here's when scientists discovered that Cassini had successfully performed the dive:

We did it! Cassini is in contact with Earth and sending back data after a successful dive through the gap between Saturn and its rings. pic.twitter.com/cej1yO7T6a

- CassiniSaturn (@CassiniSaturn) April 27, 2017

In fact, NASA had time to analyze the dive data and concluded that while astronomers feared that Cassini might collide with rock or ice fragments - which could damage the spacecraft - the equipment was hardly impacted during the maneuver. In fact, according to the space agency, the region between the rings and Saturn contains much less particulate matter than expected.

First of several dives successfully completed

Although the analysis surprised scientists, this is good news for Cassini - which is expected to perform another 21 dives. The maneuvers, if you were curious, will help the probe collect data about Saturn's structure and internal dynamics, something that has never been done with the resolution now. With the information, astronomers can, for example, estimate the weight of the rings, their age and perhaps unravel the mystery of their formation. So stay tuned, as we will surely have a lot of Saturnian news in the coming months.

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