Cassini spacecraft prepares to crash into Saturn

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is about to complete its 20-year mission in dramatic fashion.

After a seven-year flight to Saturn and 13 years orbiting the second largest planet in the solar system, Cassini is ready to take the plunge—down Saturn’s gravity well and into the planet’s slushy surface.

“In so many ways the grand finale is like a brand new mission,” said Cassini project scientist Linda Spilker. “We’re going to a place and obtaining data with the Cassini spacecraft we could only obtain and doing it this way.”

For the next two weeks the spacecraft will make a series of dives into the gap between the planet and its rings. Cassini will get precise measurements of the mass of the rings, which will help determine their age, and will also analyze their substance.

 In this handout photo provided by NASA, Saturn appears in an image returned by the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft on May 16, 2004, when its imaging science subsystem narrow-angle camera was too close to fit the entire planet in its field-of-view. Cassini is expected to enter the ringed planet's orbit on June 30, 2004. It has taken the spacecraft over 6 years to reach Saturn. (Photo by NASA via Getty Images)
In this handout photo provided by NASA, Saturn appears in an image returned by the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft on May 16, 2004, when its imaging science subsystem narrow-angle camera was too close to fit the entire planet in its field-of-view. Cassini is expected to enter the ringed planet’s orbit on June 30, 2004. It has taken the spacecraft over 6 years to reach Saturn. (Photo by NASA via Getty Images)

“[The] Other thing we can do for the first time is determine the composition of the ring particles. Now we know that Saturn’s rings are 99 percent water ice but we’re not certain about that other 1 percent non-icy constituent. What is it made of?” asked project scientist Linda Spilker.

“Could it be tiny grains of iron, silicates, organics a mix of all three? Something else we haven’t even thought of? When our cosmic dust analyzer goes through the ring plane it will scoop up ring particles and directly taste and measure the composition of those particles,” she said.

IN SPACE - NOVEMBER 19: In this handout image provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the planet Saturn's "Death Star" moon Mimas is shown from a distance of approximately 28,000 miles (45,000 kilometers), taken by NASA's spacecraft Cassini-Huygens in its closest approach to the pock-marked moon on January 30, 2017. The lighting, reflected from Saturn, has been enhanced by NASA. Cassini is nearing the end of its nearly 20-year mission. (Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute via Getty Images)
IN SPACE – NOVEMBER 19: In this handout image provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the planet Saturn’s “Death Star” moon Mimas is shown from a distance of approximately 28,000 miles (45,000 kilometers), taken by NASA’s spacecraft Cassini-Huygens in its closest approach to the pock-marked moon on January 30, 2017. The lighting, reflected from Saturn, has been enhanced by NASA. Cassini is nearing the end of its nearly 20-year mission. (Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute via Getty Images)

Finally, on April 26, Cassini will plunge directly into the planet, sending back information about the planet’s composition and structure until gravity crushes it.

“I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if some of the discoveries we make with Cassini might be the very best of the mission from these grand finale orbits,” Spilker concluded.

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