Cassini’s Epic Flight & Meteoric Ending

Where were you on Sept 15th 1997? That was the day the Cassini space craft set off for Saturn.

Where will you be on September 15, 2017? That is the day Cassini will make a final dive through Saturn’s rings and, while sending data back to earth until the final moments, will go down in flaming glory as it burns up in Saturn’s atmosphere.

In ten days Cassini will make it’s 22nd pass between Saturn and it’s rings. The information gleaned from the craft’s travels has been amazing and the photos are awe inspiring (I was going to say out of this world, but I resisted). You may remember this one:

This photo shows the immense scale of the solar system and our tiny place within it.

Cassini also visited several of Saturn’s many moons, including landing a probe on Titan in 2005. There it discovered a frozen floodplain, complete with water ice, as well as evidence of liquid hydrocarbons. The images from the landing of the probe bring you through the clouds to settle on the surface of an alien world.

Later, Cassini flew close to Enceladus discovering surprising plumes of liquid shooting from the surface. Studies of its chemical composition show that the plumes include water vapor, organic compounds (in chemistry-speak that means the compounds contain carbon), volatile gases, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, salts and silica. In 2015, after years digging deeper into the data, discoveries were made showing that a vast water ocean must exist beneath the surface.

This makes Enceladus a prime place to look for life beyond Earth. Imagine if we found life within the Solar System. Earth could be a fluke and the only place where life arose, but that would be surprising. If life occurs twice in the same solar system that would suggest that the universe (or at least our galaxy), must be teaming with life.

Personally, I can’t imagine that we are the only life in the galaxy. The evidence for at least the potential for life gets stronger all the time. In another post I will discuss the intriguing questions posed by “Tabby’s Star.” Are we alone or is someone else out there (drum beat please).

In the meantime, don’t despair. We have two rovers on Mars, so you can still watch the workings of another planet from here on earth. You can get an app to take you around the solar system (including Earth) here:
https://eyes.jpl.nasa.gov/eyes-on-cassini.html

(All photos courtesy of NASA.)