Saturn sank sin Cassini

houston - It's not a foul, the fate that Cassini's Friday night is waiting for. Rather swallowed. After a long journey, the vessel will perish through space on the planet Saturn. The flight line deliberately disappears in the gas clouds of the planet.

The demise is precise prepared. In April, the American probe began the first of 22 dive flights, bringing him closer to Saturn. In addition, the Cassini flew through the famous rings around the planet. In the meanwhile, the probe did all kinds of measurements and made pictures of his environment, where humanity had never been.

The Cassini is active until his last snap. Probably the probe will work one to two minutes after entering the atmosphere. In the short period, the Cassini must do all kinds of measurements and return the data to the ground. Then he is torn apart by the forces of Saturn. That happens around 13. 54 hours Dutch time.

The Cassini was launched in 1997 and came to Saturn after seven years and is at least 62 men. He discovered among other things oceans on the Enceladus moon and seas of liquid methane on the Titan moon. Meanwhile, he has nearly 8 billion kilometers on the counter and slowly raises the fuel (plutonium). Crashing on Saturn must prevent the probe from ever steaming on one of the moons around the planet. There may be traces of life. The airline does not want to pollute it.

Together with the Cassini, the Huygens went to Saturn. The European probe landed on Titan in 2005. The moon was discovered by scientist Christiaan Huygens in 1655. Never had a explorer landed so far from the earth.