WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The US Space Agency reported that the Cassini spacecraft disintegrated on Friday as it came into contact with Saturn's atmosphere after completing its 20-year mission.
This was the first probe to orbit Saturn and obtain images between that planet and its rings.
NASA reported that, having exhausted almost all of its fuel, the device entered today, at 11:57 am GMT, in the atmosphere of that planet, where it disintegrated, as planned.
"Our spacecraft has entered Saturn's atmosphere and received its latest transmission," NASA said on Twitter.
The Cassini-Huygens mission, which over the past twenty years has collected such important data as the possible habitability of two of the moons of Saturn, Enceladus and Titan, was ended.
It is precisely this finding that led NASA to make the decision to destroy the ship before it lost its control from Earth and avoid a possible collision with one of the moons that could compromise future research.
Also taking advantage of the unique opportunity to obtain data on the descent towards Saturn's surface, information that would have been impossible to obtain otherwise.
The Cassini spacecraft was launched into space on October 15, 1997, next to the Huygens spacecraft, becoming the seventh spacecraft that flew through the region of the asteroid belt, and the first artifact built by the man who landed on a moon from another planet.
These craft represent the both the brilliance of mankind and its future, it is so sad when their end of life is reached but the truth is they do more for humanity than any human could achieve here on earth, that said its a true testament to the engineers and project staff of these missions, and especially to the people that had the vision and foresight to even create them in the first place and it is seldom that we hear of those people, i remember in my younger days watching a program about giotto a probe which i believe was sent to pass as close as possible to halleys comet on the program the signals disappeared from it as it interacted with the comet and its associated dust and everyone thought that all was lost, and after a tense wait a faint signal was heard to signify its survival from the encounter, i remember it bringing a tear to my eye that the poor thing had survived but really now in adulthood my emotions lean toward the people that had the skills and knowledge to make it possible and so often are not known to us, to them i say thankyou \o/
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Thanks a lot for your great comment
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If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future.
- Winston Churchill
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