Cassini is a spacecraft developed by NASA, ESA and the Italian Space Agency that has taken part in a mission lasting almost twenty years, and as of April 2017 has begun to enter its ‘Grand Finale’ stage.
Since its launch in 2004, the journey to Saturn has taken seven years, and since arriving the spacecraft has produced high quality, never before seen images of Jupiter, moons such as Mimas and Enceladus, and most recently, the view of Saturn from between its rings. In one of the images sent back Earth is even visible as a small dot of light in between the rings of Saturn, putting a new sense of perspective into our solar system.
Not only this, but it also has given evidence of liquid water present on Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons. No doubt further experiments in the future will be completed in order to investigate this surprising new discovery.
It was also the seventh spacecraft to fly through the asteroid belt, an area of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter.
On Wednesday, it performed the first of twenty-two planned “dips” into Saturn’s rings, providing an incredible view that humans have never been able to witness before, flying the closest to the planet that any spacecraft has ever flown.
After these “dips” have been completed, Cassini will plunge into Saturn’s atmosphere, deliberately crushing and destroying it to prevent it crashing into Saturn’s moons and potentially contaminating life present there.
Robert, a space enthusiast, said, ‘It’s a remarkable chapter in the exploration of our solar system, where for the first time we’ll be able to understand the composition of Saturn’s atmosphere and core.’
In the space of fifty-six years humanity has gone from merely exiting the Earth’s atmosphere to being able to receive images from over a billion kilometres away and witnessing views that are far more beautiful than anyone could have expected – who knows what the future will hold for space exploration?
Amy Pickard, Rosebery School.
