Cassini spacecraft gets back in touch with Nasa after flying through Saturn's rings

Engineers had no way of knowing whether the probe had survived the dangerous journey. But it is now sending data back, over a trip that takes 78 minutes

A huge hurricane sweeps across Saturn's surface in this raw photo from Cassini

The Cassini spacecraft has made a journey never undertaken before – and has sent back stunning photos of the journey.

Nasa's craft made its way through the rings of Saturn for the first ever time. The dangerous journey – the first of 22 trips – saw the ship lose all contact with its engineers because it had to use its own antenna as a shield.

But it is now back in touch with Earth and sending images through space. That journey takes 78 minutes – and actually interpreting the data will take years or even decades.

Nasa is releasing some of those initial images as raw pictures, available to the public. The first of them show sights never before seen – our closest images of the Saturn's atmosphere and a huge hurricane swooping across its surface.

All of the raw images can be seen as they come in, on Nasa's special photo feed.

"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 in Washington.

Mission directors were confident that the probe would make it through Saturn's rings safely. But since the area hasn't been explored before, they couldn't say for sure – and so took special precautions, including the changes that took the ship offline.

"No spacecraft has ever been this close to Saturn before. We could only rely on predictions, based on our experience with Saturn's other rings, of what we thought this gap between the rings and Saturn would be like," said Cassini Project Manager Earl Maize of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "I am delighted to report that Cassini shot through the gap just as we planned and has come out the other side in excellent shape."