Quote:
Originally Posted by RobF
Did anyone get any images of the burn up?
|
According to the NASA live feed, it did not burn up as there is no oxygen in the atmo to support combustion, rather it vapourised in the friction which produced extreme heat. So likely there was no visual light trail to capture, although IR might have been detectable.
The NASA live feed did show the X and S band signal graph coming from Cassini, and the telemetry report on thruster activity (which indicated Cassini fighting against the atmo drag). The thruster activity gradually became fast and faster till it was constant as Cassini fought to maintain stability for broadcast. After the red line of the thrusters the X and S band signal levels rapidly dropped away to lose of signal at approximately 1000 miles above the could tops.
I suggest watching the NASA live feed on utube, it is comprehensive and you can move forward on the time line bar to jump to parts that are most interesting. It's about an hour long, with the atmo entry in the last 15 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5Ho30EMRm4&t=3955s