Cassini To Make Its Last Pass Of Hyperion

*Mosaic of Hyperion from Cassini images acquired Sept. 26, 2005. (NASA/JPL/SSI)*

This coming Sunday, May 31, the Cassini spacecraft will perform its last close pass of Hyperion, Saturn’s curiously spongelike moon. At approximately 9:36 a.m. EDT (13:36 UTC) it will zip past Hyperion at a distance of about 21,000 miles (34,000 km) – which may sound like a lot but but it’s even closer (by 17,500 miles/28,160 km) than it was when the image above was acquired.

Cassini will not come that close to Hyperion or make any flybys of it at all for the remainder of its mission, which will come to an end when it dives down into Saturn’s atmosphere in September 2017.

UPDATE 6/1/15: The images from the flyby are in! See a few of them below…

Hyperion on May 31, 2015 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI. Edited by Jason Major.)

Hyperion on May 31, 2015 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)

See more raw images (while they’re still in the lineup) on the Cassini mission site here. All images credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.