‘Cassini has used a gravitational slingshot around Saturn’s moon Titan to put it on a path towards destruction. Saturday’s flyby swept the probe into an orbit that takes it in between the planet’s rings and its atmosphere.
This gap-run gives the satellite the chance finally to work out the length of a day on Saturn, and to determine the age of its stunning rings. But the manoeuvre means also that it cannot escape a fiery plunge into Saturn’s clouds in September.
The US space agency (Nasa) is calling an end to 12 years of exploration and discovery at Saturn because the probe’s propellant tanks are all but empty. Controllers cannot risk an unresponsive satellite one day crashing into – and contaminating – the gas giant’s potentially life-supporting moons, and so they have opted for a strategy that guarantees safe disposal.’