GOOD SCIENCE
Artist’s rendering of Cassini as it observes a sunset through the hazy atmosphere of Titan, a moon of Saturn.
ARTIST’S RENDERING/COURTESY OF NASA
A SPECTACULAR SPACE exploration mission will conclude with a dramatic death. The Cassini spacecraft will self-destruct by plunging into Saturn’s atmosphere, ultimately burning up and disintegrating. The planned mid-September dive will be the final farewell for a nearly threedecade- long collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. It’s been good while it lasted, Saturn.