The reason for the fiery death and not a prolonged retirement of exploring more of Saturn and its moons is that NASA thinks that two of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus and Titan, feature habits that could possibly sustain life.

Just in case there are alien organisms living on them, NASA doesn’t want to jeopardize them by bringing microbes from Earth that could still be surviving on the probe– even though that possibility is slim.

While it will be sad to lose the veteran Cassini, we’re all looking forward to the amazing observations it provides in its Grand Finale.