Cassini - the End - 04/27/17 12:02 AM
The Cassini spacecraft has been studying Saturn since 2004. The mission will end on September 15th this year - if not before. It will be making a series of dives that are quite dangerous. They could destroy the spacecraft, so they weren't carried out earlier. But now that the mission is ending it's an opportunity to learn more about the Saturnian system.
Here is an artist's rendering of Cassini above Saturn's northern hemisphere, heading toward its first dive between Saturn and its rings on April 26, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Here is an artist's rendering of Cassini above Saturn's northern hemisphere, heading toward its first dive between Saturn and its rings on April 26, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech