Truth behind viral NASA photo of last thing spacecraft saw before crashing in to Saturn
NASA loves nothing more than sending spacecraft out in to the unknown void of space in the hope of learning something new and exciting about the universe.
Not all projects last forever, and the fiery ending to one of NASA's projects has begun to go viral over on TikTok. The problem, though, is that it is not exactly being fuelled by truth.
While the James Webb Space Telescope is leading the way for the space agency in the here and now, exploration of the cosmos existed well before the $10 billion spacecraft was sent up, up, and away.
Enter the Cassini spacecraft, which was launched by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) way back in 1997.
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Fired into space almost 30 years ago, it's purpose was to study Saturn and its system, primarily the rings surrounding the planet as well as its moons.
The first ever spacecraft to orbit Saturn, it stayed there for almost 20 years after arriving in 2004.
But it's time serving humanity's scientific experiments ended back in 2017 after it crashed and burned on the planet.
After having its time in operation extended by a number of years, Cassini endured what NASA labelled its 'Grand Finale' mission.
Moving in some high-risk pathways between Saturn and its inner rings, it successfully got closer to the planet to fulfil its final objectives before it was time to intentionally crash in to the planet to avoid potential contamination with the planet's moons, which continue to be the topic of intense research by astronomers.
It's final journey took place on 15 September, 2017. And according to videos on TikTok going viral this month, it sent one last photo upon its descent to Jupiter.
Except, it didn't.
As stunning as the image appears, with the rings of Saturn appearing overhead, the truth is a little different to what is being portrayed on the social media app.
One video, which has 6.4 million views, says: "The last photo taken by the Cassini spacecraft before its disintegration in Saturn's atmosphere captures a stunning view of the planet from 639,000 kilometres away.
"This image, taken in monochrome and then colourised with red, green, and blue spectral filters, shows part of Saturn illuminated by light reflected off its icy rings."
As amazing as it sounds, that is not what happened.
In fact, the image in question - which is shown below - is an artist's concept of the final descent. Found here on the NASA website, it is what they envisioned the final journey to look like based off of everything NASA knows about the planet.
In a modern age of so-called 'fake news', it shows just how far an image from space being portrayed as something it isn't can spread without people realising what they're actually looking at.
Still pretty cool, just not what they're being told it is.
Thankfully, some wise TikTokers said as much. One wrote: "There is a photo taken by the Cassini as it was falling into Saturn. It is easily found with a simple Google search.
"This photo is NOT the photo. This is an artist rendition."
And another wrote: "Funny thing is this isn't actually the real image, it's an artists interpretation. Still beautiful though."
Tom Earnshaw