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Cassini Has Made its Last Flyby of Titan

Accepted submission by The Mighty Buzzard mailto:themightybuzzard@soylentnews.org at 2017-04-25 22:22:35 from the this is why we can't have nice things dept.
Science

From the expensive toy breaking folks over at NASA [nasa.gov]:

"Cassini's up-close exploration of Titan is now behind us, but the rich volume of data the spacecraft has collected will fuel scientific study for decades to come," said Linda Spilker, the mission's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The flyby also put Cassini on course for its dramatic last act, known as the Grand Finale. As the spacecraft passed over Titan, the moon's gravity bent its path, reshaping the robotic probe's orbit slightly so that instead of passing just outside Saturn's main rings, Cassini will begin a series of 22 dives between the rings and the planet on April 26. The mission will conclude with a science-rich plunge into Saturn's atmosphere on Sept. 15.

Look, guys, if it's a driving ability problem I'll be happy to come over and show you now to not run into a gigantic planet...


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