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Cassini Flies By Saturn Moon

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NASA officials say the Cassini spacecraft has completed a flyby of Saturn´s largest outer moon.

The internationally built spacecraft is preparing to enter a four-year orbit to study the ringed planet.

It´s carrying 12 science instruments and a probe.

Officials at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California say the craft came within 13-hundred miles of the dark moon Phoebe.

A mission scientist says the flyby was key for learning about Phoebe, which he describes as a “mysterious oddball” and an object of scientific interest. Cassini took photographs of the moon and collected data on its mass and composition.

The spacecraft´s next major maneuver is to position its trajectory to become a satellite of Saturn.

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