Before Cassini, the last human-made visitors to the Saturn system were Voyagers 1 and 2 in 1980 and 1981, respectively. While the Voyager probes offered a taste Saturn’s mysteries, Cassini scoured the depths of the planet’s hazy heart. According to NASA, almost 4,000 scientific papers have been written using data collected by Cassini.

Over the last 13 years, the spacecraft has made a planet 746 million miles (1.2 billion kilometers) away feel close. It has gazed into Saturn’s swirling polar abyss—and it may (or may not) have gazed back. It discovered seas of methane on Titan, and an atmosphere thick with organic molecules that might form the basis of some seriously weird biology. It’s spent the last leg of its life performing 22 dives between Saturn and its rings, taking up-close images that capture unprecedented detail. Perhaps most importantly, Cassini found that Saturn’s icy moon, Enceladus, has some of the right ingredients for life brewing in a liquid water ocean beneath its surface, and spewing out of its south polar geysers—which Cassini has also tasted. Thanks to Cassini, our next trip to Saturn will very likely be a dedicated search for alien life.

SecEng Perry is working on it though..