The Nerd In Me

…orgasmed a little upon seeing these photos from Cassini. Saturn's rings, up close and personal:

It pains me that after this year, there will be no new pictures of Saturn. There are no plans to return to the planet during the remainder of my foreseeable lifetime. I'm glad I was alive when I was to witness this in real time.

I know it would risk losing control of the spacecraft completely, but after seeing these photos shot from still thousands of miles away, can you imagine what we'd see if Cassini flew through the rings on its final orbit around the planet?