NASA's Cassini Probe Will Finally Meet Its End As It Burns Into Saturn's Atmosphere On Friday
A 20-year-long mission is being ended in a grand fireball, to protect the possible existence of alien life.
The day has finally come, when NASA¡¯s Cassini spacecraft will take its final plunge into Saturn¡¯s atmosphere. After 13 years of observing the planet and its moons, and occasionally diving through its rings, the probe has reached the end of its lifetime.
A representational image of Cassini diving through Saturn's rings
In October 1997, Cassini left Earth for its distant goal, as part of a $3.2 billion project involving NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. Now, nearly 20 years later, it¡¯s running out of fuel reserves. Because of this, NASA is going to direct the spacecraft into Saturn¡¯s atmosphere where it will burn up on re-entry.
NASA is still unsure whether there¡¯s any alien life on Saturn or its moons. And no matter how microscopic, the space agency can¡¯t risk damaging any of it with a defunct probe hurtling around in the vicinity. The idea is that a dead probe could easily be knocked out of orbit by the competing gravitational fields and then crash into a moon like Enceladus or Titan, both promising locations for the possibility of life, taking out a chunk of the surface. It¡¯s for this reason that NASA believes it¡¯s best to just destroy the faithful probe.
In April, NASA directed Cassini into the final stage of its mission, called the ¡®Grand Finale¡¯. The spacecraft is currently on a path between Saturn and its rings, going closer than ever before. After its 22nd Grand Finale orbit of Saturn, taking pictures all along the way, the planet¡¯s gravity will eventually pull Cassini in on Friday. Once that happens, it¡¯ll take only five to six minutes before the probe falls apart and burns up, even as it¡¯s sending make images and data back to Earth in real time. ¡°Some of these analyses will take years for scientists to figure out,¡± Cassini¡¯s deputy project scientist Scott Edgington tells The Verge. ¡°I would expect to still hear a lot more from Cassini in the coming years.¡±
A representational image of Cassini burning up in Saturn's atmosphere
¡°We¡¯re calling it a goodbye kiss.¡±
¡°A lot of us have spent a lot of time on this project and we¡¯re just in love with Saturn and its system and the spacecraft itself,¡± Edgington adds. ¡°And here we are: it¡¯s not going to exist after next week. It¡¯s going to be bittersweet and I can imagine a lot of tears being shed after that final signal is lost.¡±
