Farewell, Cassini!
Just a few hours ago, NASA confirmed that the Cassini mission is over — the spacecraft has plunged into Saturn and destroyed itself. This marks the end of what has been one of the greatest interplanetary missions of all time!
Cassini is a bus sized spacecraft launched way back in 1997. Since then, it has spent 13 years orbiting Saturn, studying the planet and its fascinating system of moons. The amount of images, data, and science that has come out of Cassini has been astounding. It has also given us some spellbinding discoveries and jaw-dropping colour photographs. Alas, all good things must come to an end, and Cassini’s time has come to a close. To preserve the Saturn moon system, NASA scientists have plunged it into Saturn, where it has burned up in a fiery ball in the planet’s dense atmosphere.
Cassini was also responsible for deploying a lander, named Huygens. Huygens is a small probe that descended on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Huygens sent back valuable data about Titan’s surface and atmosphere, and gave us the only photo from a world in the outer solar system — a truly monumental achievement! Here’s a picture from the surface of Titan, a rocky landscape more than a billion miles from us.
Coming back to Saturn, the planet is often hailed as the most beautiful because of its incredible rings. Indeed, when I first saw Saturn through a telescope, I was blown away — the rings look exactly like they do in the pictures, seemingly hanging around the planet like a golden wreath! It’s one of those moments that truly make you question your place in the universe, and Cassini has taken that emotion to cosmic proportions. The photos of the planet and it’s complex moon system have been nothing short of phenomenal.
September 15th, 2017 was truly a heartbreaking day for the NASA scientists and engineers who have been part of this gargantuan mission from the very beginning. In fact, there were even Cassini themes tissue pouches distributed for the teary-eyed, and grief counselling was offered. One can assume that the feeling was akin to that of losing a child — one that has accomplished above and beyond expectations however. Cassini-Huygens is a resounding success, and the space community will miss it’s presence.
So long and thanks for all the fish, Cassini!
