NASA’s Cassini probe will soon be ending its long and historic mission. Over the years, the probe has made many groundbreaking discoveries, including:

• Methane lakes on Titan: Finding liquid bodies on another world.
• Saturn’s moon Enceladus: Identifying its unique characteristics.
• Ice on Enceladus: Discovering evidence of subsurface water.
• Earth-like weather: Observing weather patterns on Enceladus similar to those found on our planet.

The probe will begin its final descent following its last flyby of Titan on April 22nd. Cassini will then start a series of orbital maneuvers, with its first dive into the gap between Saturn and its rings occurring on April 26th. Finally, the probe will make its ultimate plunge into Saturn’s atmosphere on September 15th.

Resources:

• NASA Talk: To watch a presentation from NASA explaining the probe’s Grand Finale, click here.
• NASA’s Eyes: To view the trajectory for the Grand Finale, install NASA’s Eyes. Select Eyes on the Solar System and then choose Cassini.