Special Reports

Cassini Spacecraft Finds ‘The Big Empty’; Probe Dove Through Moon’s Plumes [VIDEO]

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Before the Cassini Spacecraft bids farewell and heads to its Grand Finale, it revealed a new discovery that left some of them happy and some confused. It has sent data that showed that it has discovered "The Big Empty."

Cassini Spacecraft Finds A Region Completely Empty

The Cassini Spacecraft's newest discovery has made the Cassini engineers happy, while the ring scientists are confused that there is a region between Saturn and its rings that is completely dust-free. This discovery was based on the data that the probe collected during its momentous first dive through the region on April 26, according to the official website of Phys.org.

Now equipped with new information from the probe, the team will now move forward with its preferred plan of science observations of Saturn. Project Manager Earl Maize said that the region between the rings and the planet will be called "The Big Empty." They will make the probe stay its course, while the others will check out the mystery of why the dust level is much lower than they have expected.

Team member William Kurth described the sound information that the Cassini Spacecraft as disorienting. They did expect the sounds they were hearing from the data, which he heard several times already. He revealed that he could count on his hands the number of dust particle impacts from it, CNet reported.

Cassini Spacecraft's Next Cross Through The Ring Plane

The Cassini Spacecraft will be crossing through the ring plane on May 2 in a region very close to the first dive. During the orbit, the cameras will be looking closely at the rings, and probe will rotate faster to calibrate the magnetometer. It will be scheduled to transmit data from this dive on May 3.

Cassini Spacecraft Dives Through Moon's Plume

The probe dove through the plume of Saturn's moon Enceladus, and it has confirmed that there is a chemical energy for life within its ocean. Cassini study lead author Hunter Waite revealed that they could not find life, but they have found a food source in it. They found hydrogen gas pouring into the subsurface ocean of the moon from the hydrothermal activity on the seafloor, according to the official blog of Daily Galaxy.

Check out the NASA at Saturn: Cassini's Grand Finale video below:

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