NASA releases images from first-ever dive through Saturn's rings

NASA's Cassini just sent back stunning photos from its first-ever dive through Saturn's rings. 

Raw images from the spacecraft started populating a photo stream on the NASA website early Thursday. Data began flowing at 3:01 a.m. EDT and more than 100 images were transmitted, NASA said.

"In the grandest tradition of exploration, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has once again blazed a trail, showing us new wonders and demonstrating where our curiosity can take us if we dare," said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters.

The dive was the first of 22 passes the spacecraft will make between Saturn and its rings over the next five months before it hurtles into the planet on Sept. 15, a maneuver that will destroy Cassini and end the mission.

No spacecraft has ever been this close to Saturn. During Wednesday's pass through, Cassini traveled at 70,000-plus mph through the 1,200-mile-wide-gap between Saturn's atmosphere and its rings.

Launched in 1997, Cassini has been studying Saturn and its moons since it arrived there in 2004. The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.

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