At around 1PM today, the Cassini spacecraft will lose contact with ground control before it plunges into Saturn.
The spacecraft was launched in 1997 but did not arrive at the ringed planet until 12 years ago.
It has given experts an unprecedented view of Saturn and its 62 moons but all good things come to an end and Cassini will be sent to a fiery death as it heads for the planet’s surface.
The images sent back to Earth have been stunning and included “our closest look ever at Saturn’s atmosphere and giant hurricane.”
Ahead of its death, Cassini sent back pictures of a huge swirling hurricane on the giant ringed-planet.
vCard.red is a free platform for creating a mobile-friendly digital business cards. You can easily create a vCard and generate a QR code for it, allowing others to scan and save your contact details instantly.
The platform allows you to display contact information, social media links, services, and products all in one shareable link. Optional features include appointment scheduling, WhatsApp-based storefronts, media galleries, and custom design options.
Other pictures taken by Cassini include the mesmerising hexagon which sits on top of Saturn’s north pole.
The hexagon is a swirling storm system which scientists believe is a permanent feature of the giant gas planet.
British scientists and the European Space Agency (ESA) worked alongside Nasa in the historic mission – which saw the first ever landing on an outer solar system world when the Huygen attachment separated from Cassini to land on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons, in 2005.
Professor Patrick Irwin, whose Oxford University team supplied critical elements of Cassini’s Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) instrument, said: “Cassini/CIRS has provided the underpinning to our planetary research in Oxford, and during its 20-year mission we have grown older, raised families and trained a whole new generation of scientists who have gone on to be international leaders of planetary science in the Europe and the USA.
“Speaking personally, the Cassini mission is as old as my marriage, which took place two months before the launch, and I and my wife were lucky enough to witness the launch in 1997.
“We’ll raise a glass, or two, in the pub to Cassini on Friday lunchtime and will remember our involvement fondly and with great pride.”
During Cassini’s death dive, it will reach speeds of up to 70,000 miles per hour.
But because the craft is so far away – about 746 million miles – it will take the signals around eight minutes to reach Earth, by which time Cassini will have been destroyed.
The reason Nasa is deciding to obliterate Cassini is that it could collide with one of Saturn’s moons if it is not disposed of, which could have an effect on any possible life elsewhere in the solar system.
Nasa explained: “In order to avoid the unlikely possibility of Cassini someday colliding with one of these moons, NASA has chosen to safely dispose of the spacecraft in the atmosphere of Saturn.
“This will ensure that Cassini cannot contaminate any future studies of habitability and potential life on those moons.”