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Nasa's Cassini ends 13 year vigil
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Nasa’s Cassini ends 13-year vigil of Saturn

Nasa’s Saturn probe Cassini is ending its twenty year mission by plummeting into the atmosphere of the second-biggest planet in the solar system and burning up in its atmosphere.

This ends Cassini’s 13-year vigil of the ringed plant. With its fuel supplies exhausted, the probe is expected to enter Saturn’s atmosphere at the speed of 120,000km/h (76,000mph), where it’ll be torn to pieces before it hits the ground.

Before its demise, however, Cassini is expected to beam back images and data gathered during its descent, which will be useful to scientists back at Nasa. Even in its death throes, Cassini is hard at work, it seems. Now that’s dedication.

Cassini left earth 20 years ago in in 1997 and travelled eight billion kilometres past Jupiter and Venus before taking up its position in Saturn’s orbit. In its time in space, Cassini has orbited Saturn nearly 300 times, beaming back information that helped astronomers and scientists gain a better understanding of the ringed planet.

“We’ve done amazing science; it’s an amazing team,” Former US space agency chief scientist Ellen Stofan told the BBC. “And I think we can celebrate that we’ve really eked every little bit of science that we could out of the Cassini spacecraft. But then it’s what’s next?

“We want to go back to Titan, we want to go back to Enceladus; there’s so much we don’t know about the interior of Saturn, so people have talked about Saturn probe missions. There’s a lot more to be done,” she added.

So farewell, then, Cassini. It’s been quite a trip.

[Source: BBC]

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