It's been a year since Cassini plunged into Saturn | Space

Science



[ad_1]

<! –

->

The last complete view of Saturn from Cassini, September 13, 2017. Image via NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI.

September 15, 2017. On that date, the Cassini spacecraft plunged into the planet Saturn, becoming part of the planet where it had been in orbit since 2004.

The discoveries and new ideas provided by Satini's Cassini-Huygens mission, which lasted 13 years, are far too numerous to report here. But we can say that Cassini – the fourth terrestrial space probe ever visiting Saturn and the first to enter its orbit – has revolutionized the way we think about Saturn, its moons and rings. It also radically changed the way we perceive nature in general in the great outer neighborhood of our solar system, while an image after a spectacular image continued to arrive, until the last days of the mission.

In 13 years at Saturn, Cassini has acquired one of the finest collections of images of spaceships ever assembled. Visit a gallery of Cassini images.

Sequence of picture films from Saturn Enceladus' last dedicated observation of the moon – and his waterfall, which falls on Saturn himself – by Cassini on August 28, 2017. Learn more about this picture via the ESA.

Cassini's last look at Saturn's big moon, Titan, was acquired on September 13, 2017, just two days before the spacecraft's last dive. This world is covered by a dense haze. Cassini and his Huygens Lander left scientists under the veil for the first time. Among other things, we now know that Titan has lakes and liquid seas, not made of water, but liquid methane and ethane. Read more.

A last look at the northern polar landscape of Titan, composed of lakes and seas, filled with methane and ethane, captured by Cassini on September 11, 2017. Four days later, the craft was deliberately immersed in the atmosphere of Saturn. Learn more about this image.

In the end, Cassini ran out of fuel. The mission was to end. But the big annual final of the machine was also incredibly spectacular. The craft was maneuvered to pass near Saturn and many moons, approaching what he had dared in previous years and finally delve into the narrow passage between Saturn's body and its deepest rings.

Cassini made 22 weekly dives between the inner rings and the outer clouds of Saturn, starting in late April 2017. No spaceship had ever ventured as close to the planet before.

The last images of Cassini were sent back to Earth on September 14, 2017, the day before diving in Saturn.

One of Cassini's last images of the rings of Saturn. Visit a gallery of Cassini images.

Even in his last moments, Cassini has made the deepest measurements of plasma density, magnetic field, temperature, and atmospheric composition in Saturn's atmosphere.

The purpose of intentional diving on the planet was to ensure that Saturn's icy moons – in particular Enceladus containing oceans – would not be contaminated by microbes that could have remained aboard the spacecraft from Earth.

During its dive into the atmosphere, the speed of the spacecraft was approximately 113,000 km per hour. The last dive took place on the Saturn side, near midday, with the spacecraft entering the atmosphere at about 10 degrees north latitude.

The atmospheric input into Saturn began about a minute and a half before the final loss of the signal. When Cassini began to encounter the atmosphere of Saturn, the machine's attitude control thrusters began shooting bursts to fight the gas and keep Cassini's high-gain antenna in the shape of a saucer. to Earth to relay the precious final data of the mission.

As the atmosphere thickened, the thrusters were forced to increase their activity, from 10% of their capacity to 100% in the space of a minute or so.

Once they were firing at full capacity, the propellers could no longer keep Cassini pointed, and the spacecraft began its last fall. Cassini survived for a total of 91 seconds in the dense atmosphere of Saturn, before falling back for the last eight seconds and finally losing radio contact with the Earth.

The mission was over, the probe having succumbed to increasing heat and pressure.

Read more: Relive the last moments of Cassini

The latest Cassini transmissions were received by NASA's Deep Space Network at Canberra, Australia. The confirmation of the end of the 20-year Cassini mission to Saturn arrived at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at 7:55 am EDT (11:55 UTC) on September 15, 2017. The loss of the spacecraft signal had occurred 83 minutes earlier to Saturn. , which was nearly a billion kilometers from Earth at the time.

The fatal dive of the spacecraft into the planet itself was the last step of the grand finale of the mission. For its coverage of the grand finale of the Cassini mission to Saturn, NASA's Jet Propulsion lab has won an Emmy Award for its unique original interactive program. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences presented the award on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Read more: And the Emmy goes to Cassini's grand finale

The Cassini-Huygens mission was launched on October 15, 1997 as part of a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency. It took six years and 261 days for the spacecraft to travel to Saturn – flying over several objects in our solar system – to finally go into orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004. Saturn is a gaseous and giant planet; when we look at it, we see the peaks of its clouds. But Saturn's largest moon, Titan, has long fascinated scientists. The Huygens lander landed on Titan's surface on January 1, 2005.

Subsequently, the Cassini orbiter continued to revolve around Saturn, weaving among the many moons of the planet, year after year.

Cassini's mission was to last three years in orbit around Saturn. Instead, the spacecraft spent 13 years, 76 days orbiting Saturn. This gave us wonders until the end. That's missed!

A NASA e-book, "Saturn Through Cassini's Eyes," featuring captivating images and key scientific discoveries of the mission, is available here, as a free download, in multiple formats.

Concept of the artist on the end of Cassini's mission, via NASA.

Bottom line: Click here for links to the latest raw images collected by Cassini before her dive into Saturn on September 15, 2017.

Cassini end mission schedule

Deborah Byrd

[ad_2]
Source link

Tags

Powered by https://naaju.com/us | Designed by Naaju
© Copyright 2024, All Rights Reserved