NASA's Cassini, a space probe bound for Saturn and the surrounding area, has returned its last close-up images of Saturn's Dione moon, showing stunning results.
This is the fifth time that the probe has encountered the moon on its 11-year mission, and in only a few years, in 2017, the probe will plunge itself into Saturn's atmosphere, which will ultimately destroy the spacecraft.
"I am moved, as I know everyone else is, looking at these exquisite images of Dione's surface and crescent, and knowing that they are the last we will see of this far-off world for a very long time to come," said Carolyn Porco, head of the imaging team for the mission, in a statement. "Right down to the last, Cassini has faithfully delivered another extraordinary set of riches. How lucky we have been."
This approach brought the spacecraft within 295 miles of the moon's surface.The closest approach that the craft had to the moon was in 2011, resulting in a flyby just 62 miles away from the moon. The mission itself is a joint partnership between U.S., European, and Italian space agencies.
Dione itself has a 697 mile diameter, making it the fourth-largest of all the 62 moons that Saturn has. The moon has an icy exterior, with rock below the ice. During the fly-by, Cassini aimed a number of its sensors toward the moon, helping scientists get a much better idea of the composition of the surface of the moon.
Because the probe is so far from Earth, it can take a number of days for data and images to be beamed back. A full set of images from the flyby can be seen here.
The spacecraft is scheduled to make three approaches to the geologically active moon Enceladus on Oct. 14 and 28, and Dec. 19. The December Enceladus encounter will be Cassini's final close pass by that moon, at an altitude of 3,106 miles (4,999 kilometers), NASA says.
From then until the mission's conclusion in late 2017, there are a handful of distant flybys planned for Saturn's large, icy moons at ranges of less than about 30,000 miles (50,000 kilometers). Cassini will also pass by many of Saturn's small, irregularly shaped moons-- including Daphnis, Telesto, Epimetheus and Aegaeon -- at similar distances during this time. When Cassini does finally dive-bomb toward Saturn, it will go through the planet's rings, after which it will enter Saturn's atmosphere. There, it will become very hot, melt, and eventually be crushed by the huge pressure of the planet's atmosphere.
Interestingly enough, the probe is being disposed of in this way so that no debris can end up on Enceladus and Titan, both of which are moons that have been talked about as candidates for extraterrestrial life. Scientists do not want these moons contaminated by microbes that could still be on the probe from Earth.
Via: BBC
