NASA’s Cassini orbiter will spend its last year in orbit around Saturn taking close-up images of the planet and its iconic rings before plunging into its atmosphere on September 15, 2017.
In orbit around Saturn since 2004, Cassini will use the gravity of the planet’s largest moon, Titan, to propel it into the 1,200-mile (2,000-km) gap in the rings in April of next year.
The gravity assist, which will also mark the beginning of the spacecraft’s final Titan flyby, “gives us an equivalent of about a third of the amount of fuel on board,” said Cassini project scientist Linda Spilker of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Once Cassini confirms that the gap in the rings is clear of debris, it will plunge into the gap at a speed of 74,000 miles per hour (119,000 km per hour), capturing stunning images from a perspective scientists have never previously seen.
From within the ring system, Cassini will measure the planet’s gravity and mass, which scientists will then compare with previous Cassini data of the combined mass of both planet and rings.
Isolating the mass of the rings is important because their mass will inform scientists of their age. If the rings have a high mass, they likely are ancient, comprised of large objects that have broken down over long periods of time through collisions and weathering.
If they have a low mass, the rings likely are younger, possibly composed of fragments of a larger object such as a comet or proto-planet, Spilker said.
“This is a brand new mission. We’re flying in a place that no spacecraft has ever flown before. When you fly someplace new, you’re really bound to make new discoveries,” she said at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) Division of Planetary Sciences (DPS).
In addition to studying the rings’ composition, Cassini will spend its last 22 orbits of Saturn observing the storms on the planet’s surface.
Cassini’s long list of discoveries includes methane lakes on Titan, a hexagon storm on Saturn’s north pole, and both plumes and an underground ocean on Saturn’s moon Enceladus.
The mission will end with the spacecraft flying through Saturn’s clouds, returning data until it burns up in the giant planet’s atmosphere.
Cassini will be destroyed to make sure it does not land on Titan or Enceladus, either of which could host microbial life, and contaminate them with microbes from Earth.
“We satisfy planetary protection and, at the same time, gather tremendous data,” Spilker emphasized regarding the mission’s end.
Author information
Laurel Kornfeld
Staff Writer
Laurel Kornfeld is a freelance writer and amateur astronomer from Highland Park, NJ, who enjoys writing about astronomy and planetary science. She studied journalism at Douglass College, Rutgers University, and earned a Graduate Certificate of Science in astronomy from Swinburne University’s Astronomy Online program.
| Twitter | Facebook |
The post In its final year, Cassini will obtain closeups of Saturn and its rings appeared first on The Space Reporter.