Cassini - This is how it ends. Not with a poof, but with a bang!
The Cassini Satellite dove into Saturn last week, burning up in the planet's atmosphere.
Nasa launched Cassini from Cape Canaveral, Florida on October 15th, 1997. I was 10 years old at the time, and remember the excitement and curiosity that such an endevor filled me with.
This is one of the last images Cassini took before it made its final series of dives into Saturn's atmosphere.
The satellite was actually launched in the opposite direction from Saturn, toward the planet Venus. It took six months to get there, but when it arrived on April 25th, 1998, it came a mind-boggling 176 miles from the Venutian surface! Using the planet's gravity as a slingshot, Cassini accelerated by 4 miles per second, heading off to use the Sun for its next gravity assisted boost. After a quick loop around the Sun, the satellite once again passed Venus, coming a little more than 300 miles from the surface, now heading in the right direction much faster than we could ever launch it from Earth.
Almost eight years later, Cassini finally arrived to take some of the most breathtaking images of Saturn, its rings, and its moons, that we have ever seen.
Yes, saturn has a hexagon shaped storm at its north pole...
The last image taken of Saturn's moon Daphnis. Can you see it?
Saturn's planet-sized moon Titan
I thought this was an artist's depiction at first. It's actually a series of images taken over 40 minutes of Saturn's moon Enceladus setting over the horizon with the gas giant in the foreground. Absolutely amazing...
After years of research and over 300,000 images beamed back Earth, the scientists as Nasa decided the best way to end this mission would be to steer then satellite into a crash course with the planet, mostly as a precaution against accidentally contaminating one of the moons, particularly Titan and Enceladus, which have liquid water on them.
After almost 20 years in space, Cassini was directed to make 22 orbits that would bring the spacecraft between the planet and it's rings! Taken over a period of 8 hours, this next gif shows Cassini looking back as it passes through the rings...
And a final peek at Earth from 870 million miles away through the rings.
Cassini is a testament to the things we as humans can accomplish when we put our minds to it. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. Space is certainly one of my favorite subjects, as you can probably tell from the amount of detail that went into this post as compared to some others I've written.
All image credit goes to https://jpl.nasa.gov
If you'd like to read more about Saturn and the Cassini mission, as well as see more breathtaking images, all of the info in this post came from https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov
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I heard this was due to happen soon. Thanks for post those amazing images.
I was ecstatic when they announced how they were ending it.
I was very happy about this. Makes me sad they don’t get more funding. Always wanted to work at NASA.
I do get to enjoy seeing the launches in person which is always a joy. Most time just got look out the door to get a glimpse and watch them fade off into the clouds.
That would be amazing! I live really close to an airport, but planes and helicopters don't hold a candle to rockets....
Awesome post Sweeney. That hexagon storm trips me out. How is it possible? Circles we can understand, but freaking hexagons??
It's because of crosswinds at the pole. They intersect to create the sharp corners you see. The winds are so sharp that the air doesn't appear to mix at all along the storm's walls
Yes, but why a hexagon? We've never seen anything like that on earth or any other planet that I'm aware of. Why not an octagon or even a square? Seriously, this is making me trip. I know there is a scientific explanation for the shape and I want to find it, but until then my brain is all X-filed out.
There are a couple leading theories, and the shape can be reproduced in a lab, but I think it's just that we don't have forces strong enough to naturally produce such a thing, thankfully 😃
Fun fact: during the Cassini mission, between 2012 & 2016, the hexagonal storm changed from a blue color to more of a golden hue. It's thought this is caused by sunlight as the seasons on the planet shift. It's all really crazy stuff. I love science...
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This was very interesting!
Friendly tip: May I suggest that you name your sources to higher your post's credibility levels?
I suppose I could, yeah. I thought about ending the article directing people to the presentation most of this came from. Its from the same place as the image source 😃
Great, thanks!
It was the only detail missing.
And another extra tip: If you like creating scientific content you can add the #steemstem tag as long as your posts are original, well-researched, -written and -formatted like this one and name your information and image sources.
Check @steemstem for more information! :D
@thatsweeneyguy So much information thanks for sharing.