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| The spacecraft Cassini is pictured above Saturn’s northern hemisphere prior to making one of its Grand Finale dives in this Nasa handout illustration obtained by Reuters August 29, 2017 |
US space agency Nasa received the final signal from its Cassini spacecraft, which ended a groundbreaking 13-year Saturn mission on Friday with a meteor-like plunge into the planetโs atmosphere, transmitting data until the final moment.
Cassini, the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn, ended its mission at 7:55 am EDT (1155 GMT), shortly after it lost contact with Earth as it entered the gas giantโs crushing atmosphere at about 70,000 miles an hour (113,000 km per hour), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) said.
โOur spacecraft has entered Saturnโs atmosphere, and we have received its final transmission,โ Nasa in a post on Twitter, via its official @CassiniSaturn profile.
The end of Cassiniโs odyssey, which began with its launch in 1997 and a seven-year journey to the ringed planet, was met with applause, hugs and tears from Nasa officials after its final transmission was received, according to video footage on the space agencyโs website.
Other scientists took to Twitter to share their goodbyes.
โFarewell Cassini, how far youโve come. On this eve, in fiery death, Saturn & you are one. VIP (Vaporize In Peace): 2004-2017,โ astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson said in a Twitter postโ late on Thursday.
Cassiniโs final transmissions are expected to include unprecedented data from the atmosphereโs upper fringe, about 1,190 miles (1,915 km) above Saturnโs cloud tops. The data took 86 minutes to reach Nasa antennas in Canberra, Australia.
โNot only do we have an environment that just is overwhelming with an abundance of scientific mysteries and puzzles, but weโve had a spacecraft thatโs been able to exploit it,โ Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at Nasaโs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said at a news briefing on Wednesday.
SEASONS
Cassiniโs final dive ended a mission that gave scientists a ringside seat to the sixth planet from the Sun. The craftโs discoveries included seasonal changes on Saturn, a hexagon-shaped pattern on the north pole and the moon Titanโs resemblance to a primordial Earth.
Cassini also found a global ocean on the moon Enceladus, with ice plumes spouting from its surface. Enceladus has become a promising lead in the search for places outside Earth that could support life.
The spacecraft has produced 450,000 images and 635 gigabytes of data since it began probingSaturn and its 62 known moons in July 2004.
Cassini is a cooperative project between Nasa, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, and was launched into space in October 1997 from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
With the spacecraft running low on fuel, Nasa crashed it into Saturn to avoid any chance of it someday colliding with and contaminating Titan, Enceladus or another moon that has the potential for indigenous microbial life.
Cassini started a series of 22 orbital dives in April, using Titanโs gravity to slingshot itself into the unexplored area between the planet and its rings. The spacecraft studied Saturnโs atmosphere and took measurements to determine the size of the planetโs rocky core.
Nasa scientists have said Cassiniโs final photo as it heads into Saturnโs atmosphere will likely be of gaps in the rings caused by tiny moons.
