Cassini

Solstice

The Cassini spacecraft at Saturn watched over the ringed planet's solstice Wednesday, May 24th, accomplishing the main goal of its second extended mission. A solstice occurs on Saturn roughly every 15 Earth years as its seasons change.

Cassini arrived at Saturn in 2004, and the spacecraft completed its primary mission to study the planet, its rings and its moons by 2008. Its first extended mission, which lasted until 2010, was to observe the system during the planet's equinox, when the sun strikes the rings edge-on and the days are of equal length on the north and south poles. The goal of its second extended mission, a seven-year plan called the Solstice Mission, was to observe all the way up to the north pole's summer solstice, when the days are longest at Saturn's north pole, and shortest at the planet's south pole, and investigate the system's seasonal changes.