Farewell, Cassini, the little probe that could!

Just before 8am EDT today, Cassini, the spacecraft sent to study Saturn and her moons, sent her last signal.  She plunged into the Saturnian atmosphere to end a massively successful mission.  Launched October 15, 1997, she spent Cassini spent 7 years en route and arrived at Saturn in 2004.  For 13 years, she has explored the gas giant and released the Huygens probe from the ESA to land on Titan, a first for a celestial body in the outer solar system.

Cassini did flybys of Jupiter, our moon and Asteroid 2685 Masursky.  She discovered new moons Methone, Pallene, Polydeucesin, Daphnis, Anthe, Aegaeon and S/2009 S 1.  I'm sure they will find a better name for the last one.

She also performed flybys of moons Titan, Phoebe, Enceladus, Iapetus, Rhea, Hyperion and Dione.

Seventeen countries joined together in this effort.

Rhea(lly) beautiful - Saturn's moon

 

The Cassini spacecraft, currently hanging out in Saturn's neighborhood, has sent back stunning images of the planet's second largest moon, Rhea.  Discovered December 23, 1672 by Giovanni Cassini, Rhea is named after the Titan Rhea, mother of the gods in 1846 by John Herschel (son of William Herschel).

The dazzling image above was taken June 3 and is a result of the water ice that covers most of the surface.

Rhea is 949 miles in diameter and the most heavily cratered of all of Saturn's moons.   In 2010, NASA discovered a thin atmosphere consisting of oxygen and carbon dioxide.

Rhea's horizon.