As NASA's Cassini spacecraft orbited Saturn and its moons for more than a decade, it has now entered its final year of roaming around the solar system. The spacecraft's mission will come to an end plunging into Saturn, burning up in the ringed planet's atmosphere.
As part of its final months of the mission, Cassini will fly between the planet's rings, collecting data regarded as paramount in establishing both the rings' age and the planet's composition.
"This is a brand-new mission. We're flying in a place that no spacecraft has ever flown before," explained Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
During its mission, one of the highlights that Cassini discovered was the change in color of Saturn's north pole between 2012 and 2016, which is attributed to Saturn's seasons. The metamorphosis from blue the golden hue is believed to be the result of a higher production of photochemical hazes in the atmosphere. The association is also related to the planet's summer solstice, which will take place in May 2017.
The Cassini spacecraft was launched back in 1997, and it got to the ringed planet back in 2004. Over the past 20 years, it has revealed important data about the planet's organic state, including the subsurface ocean on its moon Enceladus and the hexagon storm on its northern pole.
Mission Highlights
In 2013, Cassini celebrated taking pictures of Earth at approximately 900 million miles away. On that Friday of July 19, people around the entire globe gathered to wave at Saturn, marking a truly unique moment.
In March, Cassini identified the tallest peak of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, at more than 10,000 feet, within a trio of mountain ridges. Two months later, the RSS observed an atmospheric occultation, as Cassini went behind Titan's atmosphere, marking the last RSS Titan occultation of the mission.
Cassini's highlight of 2016 will take place on Nov. 29, with the orbit of F-Ring. Twenty-two inclined orbits will carry the spacecraft above the poles, winding it ever closer to Saturn.
The final flyby is scheduled to take place on April 22, 2017, when Titan, a moon the size of Mercury, will be observed. The spacecraft will orbit and plunge through a 1,200-mile gap in Saturn's rings. The event will take place on April 26, marking the Grand Finale of this mission.
On Sept. 15, 2017, after approximately 20 years in space, Cassini will plunge into Saturn's atmosphere, being crushed and vaporized by the pressure and temperature on Saturn.
