Pioneering Saturn probe Cassini plunged to destruction into the planet’s atmosphere, bringing an end to an exploration that lasted 20 years.
Nasa scientists planned the spectacular suicide dive to end the £2.9 billion mission and, at 12.55pm UK time, radio contact with the 22ft long nuclear-powered probe was lost.
Plummeting at 77,000mph, in seconds it disintegrated into fragments and burned up.
Earth received @CassiniSaturn’s final signal at 7:55am ET. Cassini is now part of the planet it studied. Thanks for the science #GrandFinale pic.twitter.com/YfSTeeqbz1
— NASA (@NASA) September 15, 2017
Mission controllers at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, clapped and hugged each other when the signal loss was confirmed.
Project manager Earl Maize said: “Congratulations to you all. This has been an incredible mission… you’re all an incredible team.”
Meanwhile, people from all walks of life – from astronomers and those part of the scientific community to space enthusiasts – paid tributes to the spacecraft that sent us close to 450,000 images, discovered six named moons and helped us publish close to 4,000 scientific papers.
One of Cassini's last images as it dives towards Saturn. 4 hours left. I'll miss you @CassiniSaturn pic.twitter.com/od8tk9kMTj
— Brian Cox (@ProfBrianCox) September 15, 2017
Cassini gave us Saturn, but also gave us Earth — as only deep space could reveal: Small. Frail. Lonely. Steeped in darkness. pic.twitter.com/zjF6jNUFyU
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) September 14, 2017
WELL, I'm literally bawling my eyes out now.
Sleep well, beautiful Cassini.
How very moving and how incredibly grand for humanity.
— Jennifer Scheurle (@Gaohmee) September 15, 2017
It's the end of an era. Pioneers — Voyagers — Galileo — Cassini. Our great ships of outer exploration. Our horizons are smaller today.
— Emily Lakdawalla (@elakdawalla) September 15, 2017
I've done a lot of crying over space robots in my day but #Cassini you're the tops
— Rachel Feltman (@RachelFeltman) September 15, 2017
#Cassini, you are one with #Saturn, and Saturn is with you. You've planted the seeds of future missions. We will remember. #GoodbyeCassini
— Sophia Nasr (@Astropartigirl) September 15, 2017
Losing a spacecraft is like losing a sense. We have so few left in the solar system. #cassini
— Alice Gorman (@drspacejunk) September 15, 2017
"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere." – Carl Sagan.
The goodbye quote from #Cassini
— Rami Mandow (@CosmicRami) September 15, 2017
Cassini just plunged into Saturn in a pre-programmed suicide. RIP, brave little space probe dude. 😢
— Christopher Mims🤳 (@mims) September 15, 2017
Screenshots of Cassini’s last signal circulated on social media.
There's the #Cassini radio signal with just 2 mins or so to go. pic.twitter.com/zHG2cFEBmY
— Michael Brown (@MJIBrown) September 15, 2017
The signal is lost…mission over. #cassini pic.twitter.com/Jq1ovpyVee
— angela garrod (@angegarrod) September 15, 2017
Cakes were baked in loving memory.
#CassiniAus #Cassini. The wild tumbling ride in Saturn's atmosphere is over. Meanwhile on earth @CanberraDSN we have cake. pic.twitter.com/mPA7w3MpvQ
— Stuart Maish (@qldskyabove) September 15, 2017
Celebrating the end of #Cassini with a #Saturn cake re-enacting the Grand Finale!#cassinigrandfinale #astronomy #baking #postdoclife pic.twitter.com/6XEmRbCkIH
— Emily Drabek-Maunder (@EDrabek) September 15, 2017
Artists took to social media with illustrated tributes.
Congrats, great your journey.Good dream, #Cassini.Thank you Specially #Grandfinale . pic.twitter.com/AQwSy8rS3D
— ふぇいる (@fairoo) September 15, 2017
Planetary Science Twitter, I made this for you. Inspired by @Alex_Parker's tweet about not casting @CassiniSaturn's Grand Finale as suicide. pic.twitter.com/PiY8icdVu2
— Erika Nesvold (@erikanesvold) September 13, 2017
After launching in October 1997, Cassini travelled two billion miles to Saturn in a seven-year journey. Its mission came to an end after it ran out of fuel.
RIP Cassini. You live through your achievements.
Cassini showed us the beauty of Saturn. It revealed the best in us. Now it's up to us to keep exploring. pic.twitter.com/E4p1jOvFKf
— CassiniSaturn (@CassiniSaturn) September 15, 2017