Nasa's Cassini orbiter sends back image of Mimas appearing to crash into the Saturn's ring system

Mimas appears to be crashing into the rings of Saturn in this picture, but the moon is actually at a distance of 45,000 kilometers from the ring. Mimas is intimately linked to the ring system, the cause of a noticeable gap between the A and B rings, which is known as the Cassini Division. Mimas also causes ripples in the ring system, similar to those caused by Daphnis. The image was captured with the narrow-angle camera onboard, in green light. The image is part of a series of phenomenal images captured by Cassini and released by Nasa. However, the image was photographed on 23 October, 2016. That was before the spacecraft began its recent  ring-grazing orbits . Previously, Cassini had beamed back images of the tiny moon Daphnis creating kilometre-wide ripples in the ring system, as its orbit passed through the plane of the rings. Cassini also captured hexagonal jet streams around the north pole of Saturn. [caption id=“attachment_351697” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  The Ring Grazing orbits of Cassini. Image: NASA.[/caption] The ring-grazing orbits are among the final maneuvers in Cassini’s twenty-year long mission. Cassini is diving past the outer rings and will dive in the gap between the gas giant and the first ring as the penultimate part of the mission. Finally, the spacecraft is expected to safely de-orbit into the gas giant so as to prevent contamination of Saturn’s moons, which could potentially host life.