After 20 years of exploring the solar system, NASA’s Cassini mission is ending with a BANG! The Cassini probe is programmed to burn up in Saturn’s atmosphere on the 15th of this month, so that it won’t collide with other planets or rocky moons. If it did, the craft could contaminate these places with microbes that could be living on the spacecraft.
Since Cassini launched in 1997, it has discovered some amazing things. It has examined Saturn’s rings, which are made of tiny particles of dust, rock, and ice. The spacecraft also identified oceans on two of Saturn’s moons, Titan and Enceladus.
Scientists recently analyzed gases Cassini sampled from geysers on Enceladus, which send plumes from its ocean into space. “From a billion miles away, we’ve sampled an alien ocean without even getting our toes wet,” says Jo Pitesky, a NASA project scientist on the Cassini flight team. Scientists hope to someday send robots to see if life exists in this alien ocean.