NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is getting ready to skim Saturn’s rings

After 12 years of touring the Saturn system, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is about to enter a new orbit — one that will take the probe up close to the planet’s famous rings. These Ring-Grazing Orbits, as NASA is calling them, will bring Cassini within nearly 5,000 miles of Saturn’s F ring, which marks the border of the main ring system. These orbits will allow Cassini to study the particles and gas molecules that linger near the rings, as well as observe the small moons that