OT - Thank you Cassini

Botch

Nice to have at least a bit of good news (even if bittersweet), Cassini spacecraft's mission ended this week, with Her plunge into the Saturnian atmosphere.
I actually got to see Her "in the flesh" at the Lockheed Martin plant south of Denver before She was launched.  There was a large controversy about even starting the mission, She ricocheted between several planets, including Earth, to gain the speed to reach Saturn, while carrying a dangerous Plutonium reactor for power (the Sun is too weak out Saturn's way to keep Her powered up).  
Along with gaining info on the Rings, She also discovered liquid water oceans under ice on one of her moons, good probability of life developing there.  My favorite discovery, however, is that the clouds over one of Saturn's poles form a near-perfect hexagon:
 

 
THAT blows me away; how/what causes that?!?  
 
Adieu, Cassini!  

dmchicago

Botch said:

 She also discovered liquid water oceans under ice on one of her moons, good probability of life developing there.

I wonder what kind of lump they prefer?

gdenby

"I wonder what kind of lump they prefer? "

Enceladians buy huge amounts of lump rendered from carboniferous asteroids around Ceres. But those who know how to do Titanian bull typically go with the lump from Vesta's dryad L point satellites.

Don't blame me, I'm just lifting from "Smokey Spock's Saturn Spit&Pit" web site.

HeavyG

When they first announced the heaxagonal polar shape I was like...wait...what?!?!

What fascinated me as much tho was learning just how thin most of Saturn's rings are.

Hope they got some interesting data as Cassini plunged to its death.

HeavyG

The cable channel Science has a show called"Space's Deepest Secrets". The episode last night was titled "Cassini's Grand Finale" (Season 2- Episode 18).

It was a good overview of the history and fruits of the Cassini mission and had coverage of it's end of mission into Saturn. Was interesting to see how they were able to keep the antenna pointed at Earth so they could receive live data before it finally started to burn up.

nolaegghead

There was something like a 1 in a million chance Cassini would crash into the earth on the flyby, and an estimated 5,000 additional deaths from the seventy some pounds of plutonium in the atmosphere over a 10 year period.

Some people made a big deal out of that, but it seems like the risk is worth it to me.

Legume

nolaegghead said:

There was something like a 1 in a million chance Cassini would crash into the earth on the flyby

So lottery tickets aren't a good deal?

HeavyG

nolaegghead said:

There was something like a 1 in a million chance Cassini would crash into the earth on the flyby, and an estimated 5,000 additional deaths from the seventy some pounds of plutonium in the atmosphere over a 10 year period.

Some people made a big deal out of that, but it seems like the risk is worth it to me.

I bet you run with scissors don't you?

nolaegghead

HeavyG

How many of the "All other causes" was from running with scissors?

I hate incomplete data.

GATraveller

http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/09/20/552076114/cassini-s-spectacular-legacy-and-a-nod-to-the-future

nolaegghead

HeavyG said:

How many of the "All other causes" was from running with scissors?

I hate incomplete data.

I think that's a collection of under 2%, so less than 2%.

lkapigian

gdenby said:

"I wonder what kind of lump they prefer? "

Enceladians buy huge amounts of lump rendered from carboniferous asteroids around Ceres. But those who know how to do Titanian bull typically go with the lump from Vesta's dryad L point satellites.

Don't blame me, I'm just lifting from "Smokey Spock's Saturn Spit&Pit" web site.

^^^^^^ That^^^^^^

thetrim

How many die from ingesting @SGH head cheese every year?

YEMTrey

Wow!  Thanks for posting.  Jumped down that wormhole and spent a good hour at work reading and looking at those amazing pictures.  Fascinating stuff.

SciAggie

A fun read. Thanks for posting. 

Botch

HeavyG said:

How many of the "All other causes" was from running with scissors?

I hate incomplete data.

I would've thought that "Accidents" would include the running with scissors victims.  That being said, I'd love to read the next 30 or so categories included in "All other causes"; when you exclude "Accidents", what else is left, especially that would include over a quarter of all deaths?