Updated September 15 at 7:58 a.m. EDT
In the early morning hours on Friday, Cassini cruised into Saturn’s upper atmosphere at tens of thousands of miles per hour, getting closer to the planet than ever before. The bus-sized orbiter, jostled by the dense atmosphere, fired its thrusters to keep its antenna pointed at Earth and transmitted data about the unexplored territory. The atmospheric forces quickly became too powerful, and Cassini began to tumble. It deployed emergency procedures to try to stabilize itself, but it was no use. Cassini started to break apart and disintegrated over Saturn’s cloud tops, like a meteorite streaking across the sky.
About 80 minutes later, Cassini’s final signals reached antennas on Earth. The spacecraft’s end, a spectacular light show on Saturn, played out on computer screens. The display resembles a heart monitor, with a skinny green spike signaling the strength of Cassini’s signal against a black background. At about 7:55 a.m. EDT, after 13 reliable years, the spike shrank and vanished.
