Cassini Orbit Animation, the “Ball of Yarn“

This animation shows the orbital path of the Cassini spacecraft at Saturn from shortly after orbital insertion in 2004 to the end of the mission in August 2017. Colors represent the different phases of the mission: Prime Mission from July 2004 to July 2008 (green); Equinox Mission from July 2008 to September 2010 (yellow); Solstice Mission from September 2010 to April 2017 (blue); and the Grand Finale from April 2017 to September 2017 (red). The audio track is a simple tone whose frequency is inversely r