Ahead of its death plunge, NASA's Cassini takes a last look at Saturn and its rings – See pic

New Delhi: On its final leg in its mission to reveal the secrets of Saturn, NASA 's Cassini spacecraft will bid farewell to the ringed planet in three days on September 15, by performing a death plunge into its atmosphere.

NASA had earlier announced that Cassini will take a last look around the Saturn system, sending back pictures of moons Titan and Enceladus, the hexagon-shaped jet stream around the planet's north pole and features in the rings.

With its antenna pointed at Earth, the spacecraft will send back its final images and other data collected along the way.

Soon after, Cassini will burn up and disintegrate like a meteor, NASA said.

Well, Cassini has certainly captured one of its last stunning images of the planet and its main rings from a distance.

According to NASA, when the spacecraft arrived at Saturn in 2004, the planet's northern hemisphere, seen in the image at top, was in darkness, just beginning to emerge from winter. Now, at journey's end, the entire north pole is bathed in the continuous sunlight of summer.

Cassini has been orbiting Saturn for nearly a half of a Saturnian year but that journey is nearing its end. This extended stay has permitted observations of the long-term variability of the planet, moons, rings, and magnetosphere, observations not possible from short, fly-by style missions.

Images taken on October 28, 2016 with the wide angle camera using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this color view. This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 25 degrees above the ringplane.

The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 870,000 miles (1.4 million kilometers) from Saturn, NASA reported.