Cassini's final image of Saturn shows the spot where it was doomed to die
Just before Cassini was vaporized while falling through the extreme pressure of Saturn's clouds, the bus-sized spacecraft beamed home an image of the spot where it would meet its fate.
The photo is by no means the best ever taken by Cassini — that's an incredibly tall order given the gorgeous photos the spacecraft has produced over the years — but it does have a poignancy that other images of Saturn do not.
Cassini performed exactly as mission managers hoped it would for 13 years at Saturn, and even at the end, as it was plunging down into Saturn, it still did what it was designed for.
"This morning, a lone explorer — a machine made by humankind — finished its mission 900 million miles away," Earl Maize, Cassini program manager said after the end of the mission.
Another gif also shows the exact spot where Cassini was expected to fall into Saturn.
The probe took its final images on September 14, one day before scientists on Earth lost contact with the craft at 7:55 a.m. ET Friday.
Other final photos show Saturn's moon Enceladus setting behind the giant planet, and the moon Titan looming large with its lakes of liquid methane and hazy atmosphere clearly on display.
Cassini also got a final look at Daphnis, a tiny moon that makes waves in Saturn's rings.
Although the Cassini mission is officially over, this isn't the end for researchers studying Saturn. Scientists will now pour over the data sent back in Cassini's final hours, looking for more details about the huge planet's composition and evolution.
Up until its last moments, Cassini was tasting Saturn's atmosphere as it was beginning to be ripped apart, all in the name of science.
"Thanks and farewell, faithful explorer," Maize said. "Long live Cassini."
Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
