Mission accomplished for Cassini as the probe crashes into Saturn
- 7 years ago
One of the most successful space mission’s, Cassini, has come to spectacular end.
The probe was plunged into Saturn’s atmosphere earlier on Friday.
Cassini soon fell silent after breaking apart on entry.
It was a violent finale to a space odyssey which began nearly 20 years ago.
The craft took 7 years to reach Saturn, but once there it transformed our understanding of the sixth planet from the Sun, sending back spectacular images.
It’s investigations of Titan and Enceladus, Saturn’s moons’, were no less stunning.
In the end, some 8 billion kilometres later, that was the reason why it was decided to deliberately crash Cassini.
Both moons’ had revealed the necessary conditions of life and scientists didn’t want to risk contaminating their pristine environments, after the probe ran out of fuel.
Summing up Cassini’s momentous journey Euronews’ Jeremy Wilks said: The big question now is what next after this hugely successful Cassini mission. Well NASA and ESA, both are actually sending probes in the next decade to the ice moons of Jupiter. When it comes to Saturn there is a huge move of the scientific community to go back to Enceladus, to go back to Titan, to go deeper and try to look for signs of life. So, there’s a lot to look forward to.
The probe was plunged into Saturn’s atmosphere earlier on Friday.
Cassini soon fell silent after breaking apart on entry.
It was a violent finale to a space odyssey which began nearly 20 years ago.
The craft took 7 years to reach Saturn, but once there it transformed our understanding of the sixth planet from the Sun, sending back spectacular images.
It’s investigations of Titan and Enceladus, Saturn’s moons’, were no less stunning.
In the end, some 8 billion kilometres later, that was the reason why it was decided to deliberately crash Cassini.
Both moons’ had revealed the necessary conditions of life and scientists didn’t want to risk contaminating their pristine environments, after the probe ran out of fuel.
Summing up Cassini’s momentous journey Euronews’ Jeremy Wilks said: The big question now is what next after this hugely successful Cassini mission. Well NASA and ESA, both are actually sending probes in the next decade to the ice moons of Jupiter. When it comes to Saturn there is a huge move of the scientific community to go back to Enceladus, to go back to Titan, to go deeper and try to look for signs of life. So, there’s a lot to look forward to.