It's amazing how much we still have to learn about our own solar system, and staggering how long the research takes. > Cassini is scheduled for three more enco

It's amazing how much we still have to learn about our own solar system, and staggering how long the research takes. > Cassini is scheduled for three more encounters with Enceladus, including one final plunge through a plume, before it is sent to a fiery death in Saturn’s atmosphere to avoid crashing into and contaminating the ringed planet's icy moons. Great that they're thinking in advance about this stuff. Would be a shame to contaminate our best chance of discovering microbial ET with spores from earth.