If you want to get up close and personal to the planet Saturn, you can’t get any closer than the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft, which meets its end this week on a final decent into the planet’s atmosphere. PBS’ Nova explores this pioneering probe in Death Dive to Saturn, premiering September 13, 9 pm. Eastern (check local listings).
Death Dive explores the mysteries of the rings of Saturn and unlocks the secrets of what may lie below the planet’s gaseous surface. The probe will dive into Saturn’s atmosphere on Friday, September 15, on its likely final mission. Meanwhile, Nova will explore the twenty-year journey of Cassini, and the thirteen years it has been exploring Saturn.
-Written collaboratively by Anthony DiFato and Edward Gregory with input from Anthony DiCostanzo. Photo courtesy of NASA.
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