Last Updated: Nov 30, 2021

A NASA spacecraft has clicked a photo of Saturn. The photo was snapped by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The spacecraft snapped the ringed world from the Moon’s orbit. The photo shows Saturn’s famed rings. It also shows the planet’s northern hemisphere. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched by the US space agency in 2009. The orbiter’s objective is to study the Moon while being in its orbit. The orbiter was located above the Lake of Spring when it clicked the photo of the gas giant. The agency had recently shared a much clearer photo of Saturn which was clicked by the Hubble Space Telescope. The telescope is designed to take pictures of outer planets annually. This includes Saturn.

NASA said that the camera of LRO was towards the north face of Saturn. The photo gives a perspective that Saturn is below its equator. According to NASA, Saturn’s rings are 10 to 100 million years old. They are mainly made up of water ice. The thickness of the planet’s rings is around 10 meters. NASA said that the rings in the photo are approximately 270,000 km in diameter. The planet’s northern hemisphere which is visible in the picture is in its autumn season. Saturn experiences seasons like Earth. It is because the planet is tilted to the plane of its orbit. The planet experiences four seasons in a year. Saturn’s every season lasts for seven Earth years. A year on Saturn is equal to 29.5 years on Earth.

According to NASA, the LRO is tasked to learn more about the Moon. The spacecraft has collected treasure data using its powerful instruments. The agency said that LRO has made an invaluable contribution to humans’ understanding of the Moon. It said that the spacecraft has collected data that is essential for planning future crewed and robotic missions to the Moon. The spacecraft’s ability to map the lunar surface in detail is crucial in identifying potential safe landing sites on the Moon. NASA claims that the spacecraft has made a 3-D map of the lunar surface.


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