In April of that year, NASA announced plans for the last months of operation of the Cassini spacecraft, which was launched about 20 years ago by the space agency and has been monitoring the planet Saturn and its natural satellites since 2004.

Expected to fall to the surface of the ring planet on September 15, just over a month before the last goodbye to the unmanned spacecraft that has enriched humanity with knowledge of our solar system.

Starting August 14, the Cassini spacecraft will begin its last five orbits around Saturn and will approach the planet like never before, rising to about 1, 600 to 1, 700 kilometers above the clouds to record the effects of sunlight on the atmosphere from an unexplored distance.

The atmosphere of Saturn according to the Cassini spacecraft

Slowly, almost stopping

During the last lap, the spacecraft will again approach - for the last time - the Titan satellite so that its speed is slowed by the star's gravity. This will cause Cassini to finally take the direction of Saturn's surface and be deactivated once and for all.

The decision to deactivate the spacecraft while it still has some of its already scarce resources in place was made so that the last flight could be made with all devices fully functioning, giving scientists information never before reached by proximity to the planet, and to avoid for the spacecraft to wander around Saturn, potentially complicating other future missions.