Five incredible revelations of NASA's Cassini mission

New Delhi: Completing a total of 20 years in space and 13 years in Saturn's orbit, NASA's billion-dollar Cassini self-destructed by performing a death plunge into the planet's atmosphere on Friday.

Cassini's aim of investigating Saturn was truly a fruitful one, owing to all the amazingly informative insights into the evolution and structure of the ringed planet.

Honouring Cassini's contribution to the future of space research, here's looking back at the spacecraft's epic journey and its five ground-breaking revelations.

Have a look!

Discovery of active, icy plumes on Saturn's moon Enceladus

One of Cassini's biggest revelations includes unveiling Enceladus – Saturn's icy moon – and the fact that it has many of the ingredients needed for life.

Life as we know it relies on water, so the search for life suddenly extended to this small, bright moon.

With this, the mission has inspired a pivot to the exploration of "ocean worlds" that has been sweeping planetary science over the past decade.

Saturn’s rings revealed as active and dynamic – an explanation for how planets form

In the course of it's 13-year-long journey in Saturn's orbit, Cassini observed massive changes in the planet's icy rings and their system.

The spacecraft discovered propeller-like formations, witnessed the possible birth of a new moon and observed what may be one of the most active, chaotic rings in our solar system (Saturn’s F ring).

Titan revealed as Earth-like world with rain, rivers, lakes and seas

The largest moon of Saturn is also the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere. Apart from that, it is the only object in space other than Earth where clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found, thanks to Cassini.

Imaging with radar, and both visible and infrared wavelengths shows that Titan has many geologic processes similar to that of the Earth. These processes generate methane rains, which build river channels and form lakes and seas containing liquid methane and ethane that don’t immediately evaporate.

Vertical structures in the rings imaged for the first time

Just two weeks before Saturn's August 2009 equinox, Cassini captured vertical structures, among the tallest seen in Saturn's main rings, rising abruptly from the edge of Saturn's B ring to cast long shadows on the ring.

Once about every 15 years, the Sun shines on the edge of the ring plane and northern and southern sides of the rings receive little sunlight. Cassini measured the thick, long shadows from this rare event to determine the heights of structures within the rings.

First complete view of the north polar hexagon and discovery of giant hurricanes at both of Saturn’s poles

Saturn’s polar regions have surprised scientists with a the presence of a long-lived hexagonal-shaped jet stream in the north and two hurricane-like storms at both poles. The driving forces of each remain a mystery. In the remaining three years of Cassini’s mission, scientists hope to learn more of their properties and conditions surrounding their existence.

(Images by: NASA/JPL-Caltech)