Cassini spent 13 years mapping Saturn, then dove into its atmosphere to protect its moons. Scientist

Added: 2026-04-30

[00:00:00]The Cassini spacecraft spent 13 years orbiting Saturn. It discovered geysers [music] on Enceladus. It mapped Titan.

[00:00:07]It flew through Saturn's rings. It sent back 450,000 images. Then in September 2017, NASA crashed it into Saturn on purpose. Why? Because Cassini was running out of fuel. An uncontrolled spacecraft [music] could contaminate Enceladus or Titan, potentially disrupting the search for life in their oceans. We destroyed [music] a working spacecraft to protect alien oceans. That's how seriously we take the possibility that life exists there.

[00:00:36]Astro Arena