Historical moments in Cassini's mission

Cassini left many important imprints in the history of space science before committing suicide.

Over nearly two decades in the universe, Cassini will end its historic mission on September 15, following the final task of plunging through Saturn's atmosphere to commit suicide, according to Mother Nature. Network.

The Cassini spacecraft will commit suicide on Saturn on September 15.(Photo: IBTimes India).

Cassini is running out of fuel. When the fuel runs out, scientists won't be able to control Cassini in the right way. The ship is capable of crashing into one of the two moons that can survive life around Saturn. To prevent this, NASA was forced to say goodbye to the historic ship.

Simulate Cassini's crashing journey to Saturn.(Video: NASA).

"The great achievements that Cassini's mission has achieved are immeasurable , " said scientist Carolyn Porco, head of Cassini's visual science team. "Full of inspiration, adventure and romance - a beautiful end to the thrilling discovery story , " NASA praised.

Huygens probe landed on Titan

The successful Huygens probe landed on Titan's surface.(Video: YouTube).

On December 25, 2004, Huygens detached from Cassini and began the invasion of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Beyond Earth, Titan is the only object in the universe that has liquid on its surface in a stable form.

The Huygens landed on Titan's surface on January 14, 2005 and found similar conditions to the early Earth, before life appeared. However, there are still some major differences such as the key component of Titan liquid: methane and ethane, or extremely low Saturn surface temperature, -179.35 degrees C.

In addition, Cassini discovered that an ocean beneath Titan could contain high levels of salt such as the Dead Sea on Earth.

Record the most up-close image of Jupiter

A close-up image of Jupiter captured by Cassini.(Photo: NASA).

During the journey around Saturn, Cassini also has the opportunity to observe other planets such as Earth, Venus and Jupiter. Cassini's image of Jupiter is the most realistic and detailed color image a person ever recorded."All that is seen on this planet is clouds, parallel white or sepia bands, white ovals and Large Red Marks," NASA said.

Detect hidden moons

Cassini discovered Saturn's Daphnis moon.(Photo: NASA).

Cassini discovered 7 more hidden moons of Saturn, including Methone, Pallene, Polydeuces, Daphnis, Anthe, Aegaeon and most recently S / 2009 S 1 with a diameter of only 300m. NASA pays special attention to Daphnis, the gravity of this moon creates waves in the belt around it. Daphnis has some narrow and pretty smooth ripples that NASA thinks are due to fine particles from the forming belts.

The area may exist under the surface of Enceladus

Saturn's moon Enceladus can survive life.(Photo: NASA).

While moving around this moon, Cassini has found suitable conditions for bacteria to grow."There is liquid water, organic carbon, nitrogen and energy. On Earth, there are no other environments in the solar system that converge all these factors," said Chris McKay, biologist. The universe at NASA's Ames Research Center, told the Daily Galaxy.

Through the images of the ship Cassini sent, the scientists discovered giant fountains, almost like ice volcanoes, spraying liquid water to create Enceladus' white, smooth and cold surface. It turned out that under the surface was a sea of ​​warm salt water.

"If you find Enceladus's life under a mission after the Cassini mission, the findings of Enceladus will be among the greatest discoveries about the celestial body , " said Linda Spilker, scientist. The Cassini ship project commented.

Big storm on Saturn

Cassini sent a picture of the storm on Saturn to Earth.(Photo: NASA).

In 2006, scientists looked at the photos of Saturn sent by Cassini and were surprised to discover something like a big storm in the north pole. Outside of Earth, they have never seen this phenomenon happen in any other planet.

This is not a normal storm. It is about 50 times the size of the Earth's typhoon with a wind power of 4 times and completely unmoving. The process of storm formation without large amounts of water vapor as on Earth is still a mystery.

The photo "Earth Day smiles"

Cassini captures the image of Earth from Saturn.(Photo: NASA).

One of the most memorable cosmic photos was taken on July 19, 2013. Back then, Cassini directed the camera back to Earth and captured his homeland.

In addition to recording new details about Saturn, the ship also successfully recorded the image of tiny pale green dots. The photo is called "Smiling Earth Day" , marking the first time humans know how to get photos of Earth from outer space.

Empty space between Saturn and the rings

Cassini's sound record of the space between Saturn and the rings.(Video: YouTube).

When Cassini first plunged into the region between Saturn and the rings, scientists expected to hear the sound of dust hitting the ship. However, the data sent only sounded flat with a few hissing waves showing single waves in an environment containing charged particles that Cassini's Radio and Plasma Wave Sensor (RPWS) detected.

The area between the rings and Saturn seems to be "a big space," according to Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Sound recorded by Cassini in December 2016.(Video: YouTube).

This surprised the scientists because when Cassini plunged near the border of Saturn's main rings in December 2016, the RPWS sensor recorded a large number of particulate matter, expressed through crunch in the video.

New close-up images

Many new images of Saturn are sent back to Earth by Cassini.(Photo: NASA).

From the end of November last year, Cassini began to dive into Saturn in the final series of missions to capture images from many new perspectives on the planet.

"This is the beginning of the end of the history of Saturn discovery. Let these images - and the images coming up - remind us that we made a daring adventure around the onion. The most magnificent crystal of the Solar System, " said Carolyn Porco.

As Cassini gets closer to Saturn, NASA will receive completely new images. In the last moment to descend on Saturn, the ship will still record valuable information about the planet's atmosphere until it cannot signal anymore.