Cassini spacecraft

The Cassini spacecraft was a NASA mission launched in 1997 to study Saturn and its system of rings and moons. It traveled over 7 years to reach Saturn, providing detailed images and data. Cassini analyzed the planet's atmosphere, magnetic field, and many moons, revealing new discoveries like water jets on Enceladus and complex ring structures. It carried a host of scientific instruments and a lander, Huygens, which landed on Titan. After 13 years orbiting Saturn, Cassini intentionally plunged into the planet's atmosphere in 2017, ending its mission to avoid contaminating moons with Earth microbes.