Cassini's Farewell to Jupiter Date: 01.15.2001 On January 15, 2001, 17 days after it passed its closest approach to Jupiter, NASA's Cassini spacecraft looked back to see the giant planet as a thinning crescent.
This image is a color mosaic from that day, shot from a distance of 18.3 million kilometers (11.4 million miles). The smallest visible features are roughly 110 kilometers (70 miles) across. The solar phase angle, the angle from the spacecraft to the planet to the Sun, is 120 degrees.
A crescent Io, innermost of Jupiter's four large moons, appears to the left of Jupiter.
Cassini collected its last Jupiter images on March 22, 2001, as the spacecraft continued the final leg of its journey to a July 1, 2004, appointment with Saturn.
