After two decades in space, NASA's Cassini spacecraft ended its journey exploring the planet Saturn on Sept. 15, 2017. The spacecraft dove into the planet's atmosphere while sending data back to Earth until it burned up and disintegrated like a meteor. NASA lost contact with the vehicle at 7:55 a.m. EDT.

A black and white image of Saturn taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Aug. 12 and released on Oct. 23, 2017 shows the icy rings of Saturn at a distance of about 581,000 miles from the surface of the planet.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute