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NASA's new Cassini spacecraft's final orbital data helps scientists correct misconceptions while raising new questions about Saturn.
This week, six groups of researchers published their work, based on the findings of the Grand Final of the ship.
"Knowing that Cassini's days were numbered, her mission team was gone for the gold," NASA wrote in a blog post. "The spaceship flew where it was never designed to fly."
While the ship was running out of fuel, the crew headed for Earth flew Cassini "dramatically" to Saturn, allowing her 22 last rounds before deliberately spraying it in September 2017.
"For the first time, he surveyed the magnetized environment of Saturn, swept out icy and rocky ring particles and sniffed the atmosphere in the 1200-kilometer gap between the rings and the summit of the clouds" , according to NASA.
While waiting for further results, the civilian space program revealed a few highlights this week.
Cassini spoke very closely with the famous groups of Saturn, highlighting a phenomenon called "ring rain", in which particles and gases fall into the atmosphere.
Some rain at high altitude, others are driven to the equator. All, however, seem to be happening faster than scientists thought: they lost up to 22,000 pounds of material per second.
This illustration shows NASA's Cassini probe about to make one of its dives between Saturn and its innermost rings as part of the Mission's Grand Final (via NASA / JPL-Caltech)
The researchers, expecting the material between Saturn's rings and the atmosphere to vary in size from large to small, were surprised to see mostly tiny, nanoscale fragments. This discovery suggests that an unknown process involves grinding particles.
Launched in 1997, Cassini flew over space for nearly 20 years, including 13 years in orbit around Saturn and have studied the planet and its system since 2004.
"Almost everything that was happening in this region has turned out to be a surprise," said project scientist Linda Spilker in a statement. "It was important to go there, to explore a place we had never been before. And the expedition really paid off: the data is extremely exciting. "
Other discoveries include a new radiation belt around Saturn, confirming that Saturn's magnetic field is almost completely aligned with its axis of rotation and direct samples of regions where radio emissions are generated.
The continuation of Cassini data analysis will continue for years, "helping to paint a clearer picture of Saturn," NASA said.
"Many mysteries remain, as we assemble the pieces of the puzzle," Spilker said. "The results of the latest Cassini orbits have proved more interesting than we could have imagined."
Six separate reports were published Thursday in the journal Science, as well as additional articles published online in the journal of the American Geophysical Union Letters of geophysical research.
The Cassini data illuminated the famous Saturn hex, while scientists spotted dust storms on the Titan, the moon of the planet. Stay up to date with the sixth planet of the sun here.
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