Pioneer 11: Watching the Saturn watchers
On the 50th anniversary of the launch of Pioneer 10, Patty Winter recalls the day that Pioneer 11 passed the rings of Saturn. The post Pioneer 11: Watching the Saturn watchers first appeared on EarthSky .
The first spacecraft to fly past Saturn, Pioneer 11, captured a remarkable image in September 1979. The edge of the planet’s ringed disk could be seen clearly through a wide gap called the Cassini Division, while the faint Keeler Gap appeared silhouetted against the planet. Patty Winter, who worked at NASA’s Ames Research Center, watched the event unfold alongside the scientists at Pioneer Saturn Mission Control.
As the spacecraft approached Saturn, traveling at 70,000 miles per hour, they were aware that even a small piece of debris could destroy the multimillion-dollar probe. At 9:02 a.m. PDT, Pioneer 11 crossed the rings of Saturn, providing humanity with its first close-up view of the planet. The mission team received valuable data about Saturn’s magnetic field, radiation belts, atmosphere, and its enigmatic moon Iapetus, including images of the stunning rings and the planet itself.
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