Cassini Begins Ring-Grazing Orbits Around Saturn
- 29th Nov 2016
- Author: Josh Barker
Final Chapter
After a long and storied mission, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft is now beginning to reach the end of its life.
Cassini began its journey just over 19 years ago. This flagship mission was the first probe to enter orbit around Saturn when it arrived in 2004. Now, after 12 years at Saturn, Cassini begins its next and final chapter this week.
Mission end is scheduled to take place on 15 September 2017 when Cassini will begin its final swansong, or in this case, swan dive. To prevent any potential biological contamination to Saturn’s moons, Cassini unfortunately will be destroyed by flying it into Saturn’s atmosphere.
Preparations for this final descent will take place of the coming days as the spacecraft reorients itself and adjusts its course to impact the planet.
Close Encounters
Although it will take nearly a year for the spacecraft to make its final impact, Cassini will not be flying idle. It will be continuing to collect data and take images of its journey. Throughout its mission Cassini has made several close approaches of various objects besides Saturn, including Jupiter and the Asteroid Belt. This tradition will carry on in the Cassini’s final descent. The first stop will be Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.
This won’t be the first time that Cassini has got a close-up view of the moon. In 2005 Cassini’s Huygens probe was released and made its way down to the surface of Titan. It collected a stunning amount of imagery and data about Titan’s atmosphere and surface, as this video shows.
Ring Grazing
Titan isn’t the only location that will get a close-up inspection from Cassini during its final leg. The planned course will take the probe closer to Saturn’s main rings than ever before.
The hope is to get an even greater understanding of the rings and the processes that drive them. Not only will there be a large amount of scientific data gathered but it is hopeful that we may see some more stunning pictures of the rings.
Over the last 12 years Cassini has revolutionised our understanding of the second largest planet in our Solar System. It has gathered data and captured pictures of not just Saturn but many of its moons as well.
As a flagship explorer, the work enabled by the Cassini mission will continue to influence how we explore the Solar System.
