Spacecraft Cassini is sending images of Saturn's charms again after being hit by a galactic cosmic ray, it was announced Thursday.
The hit put the spacecraft into a precautionary state called safe mode, making Cassini stop sending data on Tuesday, said NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Los Angeles.
But the data flow resumed later, said the JPL, which manages the spacecraft.
The spacecraft is operating normally and its instruments are expected to return to normal operations in a few days, it said.
Scientists are poring through hundreds of images returned from Monday's flyby of Saturn's two-toned moon Iapetus. Pictures show half the moon resembling snow and the other half as black as tar, according to JPL.
Images show a heavily cratered surface and a 12-mile-high mountain ridge along the moon's equator that gives the moon a walnut-shaped appearance.
"The images are really stunning," said Tilmann Denk, Cassini imaging scientist at the Free University in Berlin, Germany, who was responsible for the imaging observation planning.
"Every new picture contained its own charm. I was most pleased about the images showing huge mountains rising over the horizon. I knew about this scenic viewing opportunity for more than seven years, and now the real images suddenly materialized." he added.
The flyby was nearly 100 times closer to Iapetus than Cassini's 2004 flyby, bringing the spacecraft to within about 1,000 miles of the surface. The moon's irregular shape, mountain ridge and contrast are among the mysteries scientists are trying to solve.
"There's never a dull moment on this mission," said Bob Mitchell, Cassini program manager at JPL.
"We are very excited about the stunning images being returned. There's plenty here to keep many scientists busy for many years." he said.
Torrence Johnson, Cassini imaging team member at JPL said, " Iapetus provides us a window back in time, to the formation of the planets over four billion years ago. Since then its icy crust has been cold and stiff, preserving this ancient surface for our study. "
Cassini's multiple observations of Iapetus will help characterize the chemical composition of the surface, look for evidence of a faint atmosphere or erupting gas plumes, and map the nighttime temperature of the surface. These and other results will be analyzed in the weeks to come.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
Source: Xinhua
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