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Today's Doodle is dedicate to Cassini. Cassini is an unpiloted spacecraft sent to the planet Saturn. It is a Flagship-class NASA–ESA–ASI robotic spacecraft. Cassini is the fourth space probe to visit Saturn and the first to enter orbit, and its mission is ongoing as of April 2017. Start of Mission was 15 Oct 1997 and End of Mission will be 15 Sept 2017.
Cassini’s final images will have been sent to Earth several hours before its final plunge, but even as the spacecraft makes its fateful dive into the planet's atmosphere, it will be sending home new data in real time. Key measurements will come from its mass spectrometer, which will sample Saturn's atmosphere, telling us about its composition until contact is lost.
While it's always sad when a mission comes to an end, Cassini's finale plunge is a truly spectacular end for one of the most scientifically rich voyages yet undertaken in our solar system. From its launch in 1997 to the unique Grand Finale science of 2017, the Cassini-Huygens mission has racked up a remarkable list of achievements.
As Cassini plunges past Saturn, the spacecraft will collect some incredibly rich and valuable information that was too risky to obtain earlier in the mission:
The spacecraft will make detailed maps of Saturn's gravity and magnetic fields, revealing how the planet is arranged internally, and possibly helping to solve the irksome mystery of just how fast Saturn is rotating.
The final dives will vastly improve our knowledge of how much material is in the rings, bringing us closer to understanding their origins.
Cassini's particle detectors will sample icy ring particles being funneled into the atmosphere by Saturn's magnetic field.
Its cameras will take amazing, ultra-close images of Saturn's rings and clouds.
Source: NASA | Wikipedia
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| Cassini Spacecraft (Google's Doodle) |
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| Fresh from Saturn: Browse the latest, unprocessed images beamed back from Saturn by the Cassini orbiter. |
Cassini’s final images will have been sent to Earth several hours before its final plunge, but even as the spacecraft makes its fateful dive into the planet's atmosphere, it will be sending home new data in real time. Key measurements will come from its mass spectrometer, which will sample Saturn's atmosphere, telling us about its composition until contact is lost.
While it's always sad when a mission comes to an end, Cassini's finale plunge is a truly spectacular end for one of the most scientifically rich voyages yet undertaken in our solar system. From its launch in 1997 to the unique Grand Finale science of 2017, the Cassini-Huygens mission has racked up a remarkable list of achievements.
As Cassini plunges past Saturn, the spacecraft will collect some incredibly rich and valuable information that was too risky to obtain earlier in the mission:
The spacecraft will make detailed maps of Saturn's gravity and magnetic fields, revealing how the planet is arranged internally, and possibly helping to solve the irksome mystery of just how fast Saturn is rotating.
The final dives will vastly improve our knowledge of how much material is in the rings, bringing us closer to understanding their origins.
Cassini's particle detectors will sample icy ring particles being funneled into the atmosphere by Saturn's magnetic field.
Its cameras will take amazing, ultra-close images of Saturn's rings and clouds.
Source: NASA | Wikipedia
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