Cassini sends back stunning last pictures of Saturn to Nasa, before destroying itself on its surface

'What a way to go. Truly a blaze of glory'

A farewell portrait sent back by Cassini, showing the intriguing moon Enceladus falling behind Saturn (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

Nasa has sent its Cassini spacecraft to its death on Saturn. But first it sent something stunning back.

The image above shows Cassini's "farewell portrait", depicting the intriguing moon Enceladus rising above Saturn's surface. Soon after, the craft plunged into the latter planet, destroying itself.

Scientists say that the craft's fiery end was emotional, bringing both sadness and joy. But it was also important, allowing Cassini to see the planet in far more detail than ever before, and send back what it found.

Much of that data is still being looked through by scientists, who don't expect to learn all the secrets that Cassini found for some years. For now, scientists are just pleased that the mission – and its ending – went so well.

Cassini managed to send data from eight of its instruments back to Earth, over the 82 minutes that it takes to send and receive messages from the craft. Indeed, the last messages and information were received here long after the craft had been destroyed, because it takes so long for that information to travel.

"The Cassini operations team did an absolutely stellar job guiding the spacecraft to its noble end," said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "From designing the trajectory seven years ago, to navigating through the 22 nail-biting plunges between Saturn and its rings, this is a crack shot group of scientists and engineers that scripted a fitting end to a great mission. What a way to go. Truly a blaze of glory."

Scientists now hope to pick through that information and find even more about how the planet formed and changed over time. Its last moments allowed it to have a taste of Saturn's mysterious atmosphere – that same atmosphere that would go on to destroy the craft, and disperse what was left over the planet's surface.

"This is the final chapter of an amazing mission, but it’s also a new beginning,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's science mission directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington. “Cassini’s discovery of ocean worlds at Titan and Enceladus changed everything, shaking our views to the core about surprising places to search for potential life beyond Earth."