In a blaze of glory

Cassini spacecraft ends a job well done

And you thought Thelma and Louise had a dramatic exit? If you’re an early riser here in the northwest corner of the state, the drama is in its final acts. Sometime around 7 a.m. our time, Cassini, the NASA spacecraft that’s spent much of the last 20 years exploring Saturn, will plunge into that planet’s atmosphere. It arrived there in mid- 2004, seven years after its launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Along the way it provided scientists information about Venus and Jupiter as well as its journey through the asteroid belt.

We know there are folks in Northwest Arkansas and in the River Valley who follow the astronomical world closely. Heck, a group of enthusiasts laid claim to a 36-footlong telescope that has peered into the heavens for 106 years at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. They envision a science center somewhere along the Interstate 49 corridor. And, of course, middle America became enthralled with last month’s solar eclipse. But for most of Cassini’s time in space, life on Earth has marched on. It occasionally made the news in ways that drew widespread attention, but mostly delivered eye-opening data to scientists, who will spend years learning from it.

The end of Cassini’s journey is noteworthy because humankind’s probe into deep space has outdone itself. A collaboration with the European Space Agency and the Italian Space agency, its primary mission ended after four years at Saturn. Its job was extended to 2017 as it continued sending data back home to Earth’s scientists. The planet takes 30 years to orbit the sun, so spending extra time there gave researchers vital information about seasons, Saturn’s moons and rings. Its achievements are too numerous to list (or explain) today. It also took pictures of our planet from 870 millions miles away. From that perspective, it’s hard to tell where the one nation begins and another ends, or how differently nationalities or races are perceived, or that problems are so huge they can’t be solved.

Cassini’s service to the nation and the scientific world ends this morning — perhaps has already ended depending on your wake-up time. Last April, scientists sent the spacecraft on a final suicide mission. It made a historic dive between Saturn and its rings. Those dives have continued ever since, 22 of them, each orbit putting the device closer and closer to conditions it cannot withstand. Scientists decided to destroy their explorer rather than allow it to contaminate some moon worthy of future exploration. This morning was its final plunge, at 122,000 mph. Cassini’s maneuver into Saturn’s atmosphere will crush and vaporize it. It’s the ultimate form of an outdoorsman’s “leave no trace” ethics. And what can be more outdoors than this?

Beyond the volumes of scientific information Cassini delivered back to its home planet, its mission is a testament to man’s ingenuity and curiosity. The New World continues to beckon, and if we know what’s good for us, we will continue to answer.