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Cassini's Best Discoveries of Saturn and Its Moons (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on from the good-job dept.

Loren Grush, writing for The Verge: Early tomorrow morning, NASA scientists will say goodbye to their Cassini spacecraft -- a hardy probe the size of a school bus that has been orbiting the Saturn system for the last 13 years. Launched in 1997, Cassini has spent a whopping 20 years in space, lasting through two mission extensions while going above and beyond what it was designed to do. But tomorrow, the probe will dive into Saturn's atmosphere, where it will break apart and cease operating. It's a sad time for the scientists who have worked on this mission for years, but also a triumphant one: Cassini leaves an impressive legacy of scientific discovery in its wake. Here's a nice video to go with it.

25 comments

  1. And in about two or three years... by Jhon · · Score: 4, Funny

    The floating, lighter than air Saturnians shall respond in force to our raining down radioactive death upon them.

    1. Re:And in about two or three years... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The floating, lighter than air Saturnians shall respond in force to our raining down radioactive death upon them.

      North Korea will save us all.

    2. Re:And in about two or three years... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      'It became necessary to destroy the Earth to save it', a North Korean major said today. He was talking about the decision by Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to launch all of their missiles knowing that the United State would launch a full retaliation regardless of civilian casualties.

      DJ T-Rump tweeted "I for one will never welcome our Saturnian overlords. Covfefe ergo est." before pushing the big red button on his desk to authorize the apocalypse and order one last diet Coke.

    3. Re: And in about two or three years... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not your fault Hector, it's not Captain James' fault, -- it's everyones fault.

    4. Re:And in about two or three years... by pr0t0 · · Score: 4, Funny

      For years their mighty ships tore across the empty wastes of space and finally dived screaming on to the Earth - where due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was accidentally swallowed by a small dog.

      --
      I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
    5. Re:And in about two or three years... by magusxxx · · Score: 1

      Apocalypse, of course, means: Thick crust, double cheese, triple topping pizza with Trump Steak on top.

      --
      Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
    6. Re:And in about two or three years... by argStyopa · · Score: 2

      You may have not intended to appear plagaristic, as pretty much every nerd should recognize it, but sad to not attribute this genuinely funny comment to its ACTUAL author Douglas Adams.

      (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. A passage about a pair of warring alien races, the Vl'Hurg and the G'gugvuntt, that wanted to launch an attack on Earth:
      "...Eventually of course, after their Galaxy had been decimated over a few thousand years, it was realized that the whole thing had been a ghastly mistake, and so the two opposing battle fleets settled their few remaining differences in order to launch a joint attack on our own Galaxy...
      For thousands more years the mighty ships tore across the empty wastes of space and finally dived screaming on to the first planet they came across - which happened to be the Earth - where due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was accidentally swallowed by a small dog..")

      --
      -Styopa
  2. Study this crater by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Bitcoin is cratering today.

    1. Re:Study this crater by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go post about it in a bitcoin thread, you boring cunt.

  3. Uggh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Its Trump's fault Cassini will die tomorrow.

    1. Re:Uggh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Hillary lost. Get over it.

    2. Re:Uggh by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Its Trump's fault Cassini will die tomorrow.

      Hair today, gone tomorrow.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    3. Re:Uggh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "You're drowning in mouth breathers. Get over it."

  4. This is the kind of stuff that makes America great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    What makes America great? When we aspire. When we reach upward. This.

  5. the size of a school bus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    That's pretty vague. The ones in my experience weren't much bigger than a car. I'm writing a book about my remanesces of those days.

    1. Re: the size of a school bus by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      I saw an actual mock-up from JPL in a museum. It is big. Without putting it next to an actual school-bus it's hard to say how accurate that description is, though. I'm not used to comparing probes to vehicles, and thus its hard to mentally compare.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  6. Check this out by wjcofkc · · Score: 1

    So yeah, this is from a UFO conspiracy YouTube channel. They took some time today to put together a really inspired montage of Cassini images from the last eight years. It's really good.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQsDM3i4lZE&t=328s

    --
    Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
  7. Science FTW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A satisfying conclusion to a marvelous expedition, made sweeter by my memory of the hysteria that preceded the launch.

  8. Re:This is the kind of stuff that makes America gr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    EXACTLY, things like our NOAA weather satellites, which deliver weather data, free, to any country that wants it and can see the satellites, to include poor countries for which we built their own ground stations for them and taught them to operate and man them. Things like the Tsunami sensors we have installed throughout the Pacific and now in the Indian Ocean as well, which we (once again) provide free access to to all of the Pacific Rim and Indian Ocean nations.

    I could go on, but I shall leave that as an exercise for the reader.

  9. T-Minus! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Only about 13 hours before Cassini slams in to Jupiter. I'm so excited!

    I'm glad they didn't change it's course so it could slam in to Uranus. That's something I would NOT want to see.

  10. Wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    the probe is simply going black, and doing the real missions now.

    rule number 1 about spact facts: never ever ever ever trust NASA for a shred of truth

    1. Re:Wrong by Maritz · · Score: 0

      lol. Got us a Richard Hoagland fan here. Remember kids: a pixel is actually an artificial structure, like a secret base, or alien ship. Never a picture element.

      Got any more 'spact facts' to enlighten us normies with?

      NASA has credibility mate - you, a shit-talking dumbass AC on slashdot, don't. Remember that when you're telling people who to trust.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  11. Re:This is the kind of stuff that makes America gr by Gavagai80 · · Score: 2

    Cassini is a joint NASA, ESA and Italian Space Agency project. It's what makes humans great, not America.

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    This space intentionally left blank
  12. Latest discovery by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Today NASA discovered Saturn is about 2500kg heavier than previously estimated

  13. Re:This is the kind of stuff that makes America gr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It does make America great. Being a joint project means it didn't JUST make America great, but also ESA and ISA.