U.S. space agency NASA received the final signal from its Cassini spacecraft, which ended a groundbreaking 13-year Saturn mission on Friday with a meteor-like plunge into the planet’s atmosphere, transmitting data until the final moment. Cassini, the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn, ended its mission at 7:55 a.m. EDT (1155 GMT), shortly after it lost contact with … [Read more...]
Saturn’s rings – a cemetery of the Moons and of the small planets
The emblematic rings of the gigantic gaseous planet Saturn, as well as those less known of the gigantic Neptune and Uranus are made of pieces of raw material derived from all the planets like Pluto that remained for too long in the vicinity of these planets, being destroyed by the strong gravitational attraction developed by them, according to a new study. Astronomers believe … [Read more...]