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North Korea tests another missile.

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Giant crocodile bones found in Texas from the Cretaceous period.

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A giant, 20-foot long crocodile from the Cretaceous Period has been discovered in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas.

Dubbed the Deltasuchus motherali, the ancient beast was discovered by a local teenager, Austin Motheral. Motheral worked with paleontoligists from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, who spent a decade excavating the bones.

The creature existed approximately 95 million years ago, at the same time as Tyrannosaurus Rex. During that era, modern-day Texas was largely covered by a shallow sea. In addition to T. rex, the area was home to other dinosaurs, turtles, crocodiles, mammals and fish.
DINOSAURS' MISSING LINK FOUND
UT paleontologist Stephanie Drumheller-Horton said, based off the fossils and bite marks, the animal ate whatever it wanted. However, there is much to be learned from this era.

"We simply don't have that many North American fossils from the middle of the Cretaceous, the last period of the age of dinosaurs, and the eastern half of the continent is particularly poorly understood," Drumheller-Horton said in a press release. "Fossils from the Arlington Archosaur Site are helping fill in this gap, and Deltasuchus is only the first of several new species to be reported from the locality."
CAR-SIZED 'LOCH NESS MONSTER' WAS RUNT OF THE LITTER
"Prior to this discovery, the only identified crocodyliforms from the Woodbine Formation had been the longirostrine taxa Terminonaris and Woodbinesuchus," according to a research journal, detailing the findings.

The research has been published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

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Giant, dinosaur-eating crocodile discovered in Texas

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A giant, 20-foot long crocodile from the Cretaceous Period has been discovered in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas. Dubbed the Deltasuchus motherali, the ancient beast was discovered by a local teenager, Austin Motheral. Motheral worked with paleontoligists from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, who spent a decade excavating the bones.

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The boyfriend of Laura Wallen, a Maryland teacher who went missing and was later found dead, has been arrested, according to police

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boyfriend of slain pregnant teacher arrested - cnn video

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Boyfriend of slain pregnant teacher arrested - CNN Video

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The boyfriend of Laura Wallen, a Maryland teacher who went missing and was later found dead, has been arrested, according to police.

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Suspect in school shooting said victim who died bullied him.

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ROCKFORD, Wash. - A 15-year-old boy accused of shooting four classmates at a rural high school in Washington state had been meeting with a school counselor over suicidal thoughts before bringing two guns from home and killing a student he said had bullied him, according to court documents released Thursday.

The documents and his classmates detailed troubling behavior by Caleb Sharpe, saying he brought notes to school about doing "something stupid," was obsessed with past school shootings and posted videos online showing him playing with guns.

Sharpe, a sophomore at the school of 300 students, also had left a suicide note at home for his parents, the records said. Freeman High School in the tiny town of Rockford has not responded to calls for comment on how they dealt with Sharpe's behavior outside of counseling for his suicidal thoughts.

He took an assault weapon and a handgun from his father's gun safe, to which he knew the combination, and brought them in a duffel bag to the school south of Spokane Wednesday, an investigator for the Spokane County Sheriff's Office wrote in an affidavit.

He pulled out the AR-15 rifle and tried to fire it in a hallway but it jammed, the records said. That's when a classmate approached Sharpe.

"I always knew you were going to shoot up the school," the student said before Sharpe shot him in the head and abdomen with the handgun, according to the documents.

Sharpe told police that he had been bullied by that student but did not target him specifically.

"Instead he'd come to the school to teach everyone a lesson about what happens when you bully others," the documents said Sharpe told investigators.

He kept firing the handgun, striking three students, until it also jammed, documents said.

He dropped the handgun and surrendered to an approaching janitor, Joe Bowen, who ordered him to the ground and held him for authorities, the documents said.

Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich called Bowen "a true hero" who stepped into the line of fire.

Sharpe was arrested and has yet to make an appearance in juvenile court. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney to speak on his behalf.

The Associated Press doesn't typically name juvenile suspects but is doing so because of the severity of the accusations and because Sharpe's name was released in public documents and was widely used in local media.

The three wounded victims remained in the hospital but were expected to survive.

Classmates recounted some troubling signs from Sharpe, saying they knew about videos he had posted online showing him playing with guns. Junior Paul Fricke told The Spokesman-Review newspaper (http://bit.ly/2wazhtH) that "we knew he had an assault rifle, because he uses it in his YouTube videos."

In one video, Sharpe and a friend display several guns, including what appear to be airsoft weapons and one actual rifle, and act out a scenario where they search for an imaginary neighborhood drug dealer.

He also had brought notes earlier in the school year, saying he was going to do "something stupid" and might get killed or jailed, according to classmate Michael Harper.

Some students alerted counselors, the 15-year-old sophomore told The Associated Press, but it wasn't clear what school officials did in response.

Asked if warning signals had been missed, Sheriff Knezovich said, "They are always missed" and that the school should not be blamed.

The sheriff's office had received no advance information about Sharpe, he said.

Harper said Sharpe had many friends, calling him "nice and funny and weird" and a huge fan of the TV show "Breaking Bad." He also said the teen was obsessed with other school shootings and watched a lot of documentaries on the crimes.

"It looks more like he was enamored of the school shooting culture," Knezovich said.

School was canceled the rest of the week.

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Suspect in school shooting said victim who died bullied him

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ROCKFORD, Wash. - A 15-year-old boy accused of shooting four classmates at a rural high school in Washington state had been meeting with a school counselor over suicidal thoughts before bringing two guns from home and killing a student he said had bullied him, according to court documents released Thursday.The documents and his classmates detailed troubling behavior by Caleb Sharpe, saying he brought notes to school about doing "something stupid," was obsessed with past school shootings and posted videos online showing him playing with guns.Sharpe,...

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Trump again seizes on terror incident to call on travel ban.

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"Another attack in London by a loser terrorist. These are sick and demented people who were in the sights of Scotland Yard. Must be proactive!" he tweeted.

"Loser terrorists must be dealt with in a much tougher manner.The internet is their main recruitment tool which we must cut off & use better!" he continued.

Trump then added, "The travel ban into the United States should be far larger, tougher and more specific-but stupidly, that would not be politically correct!"

Trump similarly referred to his travel ban back in June immediately after news reports surfaced about the London Bridge terror attacks.

Police say an "improvised explosive device" was detonated on a train in west London Friday, injuring at least 18 people, in an incident authorities are treating as terrorism. But it's not immediately clear who was responsible or what Trump was referring to in suggesting that the perpetrators were known to authorities.

The Supreme Court granted Tuesday a Trump administration request to continue to bar most refugees under its travel ban.

The travel ban bars certain people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the US.

The issue concerning the scope of the travel ban has been making its way through the courts since last spring, when the Supreme Court allowed Trump's ban to go into effect except for those with a "bona fide" relationship to the United States. The order might give hope to supporters of the ban, but it may also simply reflect a desire on the part of the justices to maintain the status quo until the justices can hear the case next month.

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trump again seizes on terror incident to call for travel ban - cnnpolitics

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Trump again seizes on terror incident to call for travel ban

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"Another attack in London by a loser terrorist. These are sick and demented people who were in the sights of Scotland Yard. Must be proactive!" he tweeted. "Loser terrorists must be dealt with in a much tougher manner.The internet is their main recruitment tool which we must cut off & use better!"

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A student at LSU was found dead, the cause of death is unknown but police are looking into if his death was caused by a hazing incident done by his fellow fraternity members. The fraternity has been suspended until further notice.

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The family of Kenneka Jenkins, who was found dead in an Illinois hotel’s walk-in freezer, has disputed the account of an activist who said that surveillance footage showed there was no foul play involved in her death.

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Cassini, NASA's 13-year Saturn mission, has ended

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The spacecraft deliberately sank into Saturn's upper atmosphere at a high speed and plunged itself into the planet just after 6:30a.m. ET Friday. Given the amount of time it takes signals to reach Earth, the final signal and last bits of data reached the Deep Space Network's Canberra Station in Australia about an hour and a half later.

NASA confirmed the spacecraft's demise at 7:55 a.m. ET, as predicted.

For about a minute, Cassini was able to transmit new data about the planet's composition as long as its antenna remained pointed toward Earth, with the assist from small thrusters. Then, the spacecraft burned and disintegrated due to the heat and high pressure of the hostile atmosphere. It became part of the planet it set out to explore.

"It was a perfect spacecraft," said Julie Webster, spacecraft operations chief. "Right to the end, it did everything we asked it to. It's perfect, it's perfect."

No spacecraft has ever been so close to Saturn. The last few seconds of the Cassini mission provided the "first taste" of the atmosphere of Saturn, NASA said.

"You can think of Cassini as the first Saturn probe," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist.

On Thursday, Cassini took its last images and transmitted all the data on its recorder to prepare for the final plunge. The final data from Friday is already being processed and analyzed.

For the team behind the mission, losing their spacecraft is bittersweet: Many are sad that the mission is over but excited to see the groundbreaking science provided by unprecedented proximity to Saturn during the final dive.

"The Cassini operations team did an absolutely stellar job guiding the spacecraft to its noble end," said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager. "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."

The team members that have worked together from concept to the final minutes exchanged hugs and tears in Mission Control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California after the loss of signal was confirmed.

"Things never will be quite the same for those of us on the Cassini team now that the spacecraft is no longer flying," Spilker said. "But, we take comfort knowing that every time we look up at Saturn in the night sky, part of Cassini will be there, too."

After launching in 1997 and reaching the Saturn system in 2004, Cassini spent 13 years exploring the planet and its moons. The data and images led to numerous discoveries that changed how scientists think about our solar system.

"A superb machine in an amazing place doing everything possible to reveal the mysteries and secrets of our solar system," Maize said. "This morning, a lone explorer, a machine made by humankind, finished its mission 900 million miles away. To the very end, the spacecraft did everything we asked. We believe we got every last second of data. We have indeed accomplished everything we set out to do."

Why the dramatic ending?

Cassini had its closest approach with Saturn's moon Titan on Monday, dubbed a "goodbye kiss" by the mission's engineers because it provided the gravity assist that sent the spacecraft on its final encounter with Saturn.

Mission scientists and operators gave Cassini this fiery send-off on purpose. Although many other options were considered -- such as "parking" the spacecraft in orbit -- they didn't want to risk Cassini colliding with any of Saturn's moons.

Cassini data and observations revealed that while seemingly inhospitable to us, the moons Enceladus and Titan could be habitable for some form of life. And NASA didn't want to risk contaminating the moons or any future studies of themwith Earth particles. Although Cassini has been in space for 20 years, microbes from Earth could still exist on the spacecraft without air, water or protection from radiation.

Although the mission itself has ended, the data and observations provided by Cassini will provide new details about the planet, its unique rings and its moons for decades to come.

"Cassini may be gone, but its scientific bounty will keep us occupied for many years," Spilker said. "We've only scratched the surface of what we can learn from the mountain of data it has sent back over its lifetime."

During the final plunge, the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer acted as the "nose" of the spacecraft, directly sampling the composition and structure of the atmosphere -- something that can't be done from orbit, said Hunter Waite, team lead for the spectrometer.

This was in the hopes of investigating the "ring rain" phenomenon discovered by NASA's Voyager mission in the early 1980s, in which it appeared that the rings were raining down material on the planet and causing changes in the atmosphere. The spectrometer could determine what material is from the rings and what material is part of the atmosphere.

Cassini's grand finale actually began in April, with a series of dives between Saturn's rings, close to the planet and its moons, providing unprecedented insight. This is another reason the mission scientists decided on Cassini's particular end-game: The final dive was a dramatic conclusion to this long and scientifically valuable goodbye.

What Cassini taught us and what's next

Inspired to learn more after flybys of Saturn by NASA's Voyager missions, the Cassini mission was designed to be an international effort that united NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.

It is known as the Cassini-Huygens mission because it delivered the European agency's Huygens probe to Titan, the "first descent and landing on a world in the outer solar system," according to NASA.

The Cassini mission has been extended twice and finally used up the last of its rocket propellant this week.

In the end, Cassini witnessed about half of a Saturn year. When the craft arrived, Saturn's northern hemisphere was emerging from winter. As seasons on Saturn last about seven Earth years each, Cassini was just able to witness summer in the northern hemisphere before the mission ended.

Over the years, Cassini has revealed insights about Saturn, its rings and how they operate, the complexities of its moons, the history of the solar system and planet formation and even the other places in our solar system where life might exist: ocean worlds. Cassini has collected more than 450,000 images using a visible light camera.

It has traveled nearly five billion miles, executed 2.5 million commands, conducted 162 targeted flybys of Saturn's moons, completed 294 orbits and its collected data has led to the publication of nearly 4,000 research papers.

When Cassini arrived, it witnessed a giant storm circling the planet for nine months. We learned that there are 3-D structures in the rings. Serendipitous observations showed that icy jets erupt from Enceladus. And Titan not only has seas and lakes of liquid ethane and methane, it has an atmosphere of chemicals that rain down, forming a unique chemistry that could lead to life.

"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. "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."

And the spacecraft itself, as well as its instruments, are informing future missions like NASA's Europa Clipper mission to explore Jupiter's icy moon, launching in the 2020s.

"Cassini has enabled those future missions to be possible," said Jim Green, NASA's director of planetary science.

NASA's New Frontiers competition has called for proposals that include future missions to the Saturn system. The proposals include a Saturn probe that explore the planet deeper than Cassini. Intrigued by Cassini's discoveries, scientists have submitted concepts for future "spacecraft to drift on the methane seas of Titan and fly through the Enceladus plume to collect and analyze samples for signs of biology," according to NASA.

Finalists will be announced at the end of the year, and NASA will explore those mission concepts further.

"For future missions to Saturn, there are a lot of possibilities," Spilker said. "One certainly involves the tiny moon Enceladus and the potential for life in that global ocean. The potential for astrobiology in the ocean on Titan. There's questions about the rings -- can we get even closer and understand those individual ring particles? Lots of questions remain, so that's why we have to go back."

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Cassini, NASA's 13-year Saturn mission, has ended

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The spacecraft deliberately sank into Saturn's upper atmosphere at a high speed and plunged itself into the planet just after 6:30a.m. ET Friday. Given the amount of time it takes signals to reach Earth, the final signal and last bits of data reached the Deep Space Network's Canberra Station in Australia about an hour and a half later.

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Not a single living person is still on the island of Barbuda after Irma.

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"Not a single living person" remains on the Caribbean island of Barbuda following the devastation of Hurricane Irma, the island's ambassador to the U.S. says.

"The damage is complete," Ronald Sanders, who has been Antigua and Barbuda's ambassador to the United States since 2015, told USA Today.

"For the first time in 300 years, there's not a single living person on the island of Barbuda - a civilization that has existed on that island for over 300 years has now been extinguished."

Places affected by Irma -- one of the most powerful storms ever observed in the Atlantic -- included Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba and Florida.

But perhaps none were affected more than Barbuda. All 62 square miles of the island were engulfed by the 378-mile-wide catastrophic hurricane, USA Today reported.

Sanders described it as the "most ferocious, cruel and merciless storm" the island had ever experienced.

Evacuees, including 500 children, were sent to Antigua, and were living in cramped government quarters and nursing homes, which Sanders said was "unacceptable." But they will remain there for the foreseeable future as Barbuda faces a "mammoth task" to rebuild.

Sanders is seeking help from around the world to aid in recovery efforts, with initial estimates at around $200 million, USA Today reported.

"We are a small island community - the gross domestic product of Antigua is $1 billion a year," he told USA Today. "We cannot afford to take on this responsibility by ourselves. Barbuda is not just a disaster, it's a humanitarian crisis. We are hopeful that the international community will come to our aid, not because we're begging for something we want, but because we're begging for something that is needed."

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Barbuda a desolate island after Hurricane Irma

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"Not a single living person" remains on the Caribbean island of Barbuda following the devastation of Hurricane Irma, the island's ambassador to the U.S. says. "The damage is complete," Ronald Sanders, who has been Antigua and Barbuda's ambassador to the United States since 2015, told USA Today.

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Trump accepts 11-year-old Virginia boy’s offer to mow White House lawn

“Dear Mr. President. It would be my honor to mow the White House lawn for some weekend for you. Even though I’m only 10, I’d like to show the nation what young people like me are ready for,” Giaccio’s letter read.

In response, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said President Trump “would love to” give him “the opportunity to mow the grass in the Rose Garden.”

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Frank Giaccio, an 11-year-old Virginia boy who offered to mow the White House lawn, saw his dream come true this week.

Giaccio penned a letter to President Trump offering to care for the White House lawn for free.

"Dear Mr. President. It would be my honor to mow the White House lawn for some weekend for you. Even though I'm only 10, I'd like to show the nation what young people like me are ready for," Giaccio's letter read.

In response, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said President Trump "would love to" give him "the opportunity to mow the grass in the Rose Garden."

Giaccio, who has been mowing lawns in his neighborhood, heads to the White House on Friday to get to work.

"So far it's pretty much the best day of my life," Giaccio told FOX Business on Mornings with Maria.

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Trump accepts 11-year-old Virginia boy's offer to mow White House lawn

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Frank Giaccio, an 11-year-old Virginia boy who offered to mow the White House lawn, saw his dream come true this week. Giaccio penned a letter to President Trump offering to care for the White House lawn for free. "Dear Mr. President. It would be my honor to mow the White House lawn for some weekend for you.

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London attack manhunt underway for suspects who detonated homemade bomb at Parsons Green station

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Man charged in fatal shooting of his wife and his 2 children

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A man is accused of fatally shooting his wife and two children at their home in Tennessee.

News outlets report Clarksville police spokesman Jim Knoll says 27-year-old Jordan M. Hazel is charged with three counts of homicide in connection with the shooting deaths of 23-year-old Keara Wynn Hazel, 3-year-old Kayden and 9-month-old Jaylynn on Thursday morning.

Clarksville police responded to the home shortly before 11 a.m. after neighbors reported hearing screams. Police found all three victims dead at the scene from apparent gunshot wounds. Jordan Hazel was detained outside the house.

He's been booked into Montgomery County Jail. It's unclear if he has a lawyer.

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Tennessee man charged in fatal shooting of wife, 2 children

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A man is accused of fatally shooting his wife and two children at their home in Tennessee. News outlets report Clarksville police spokesman Jim Knoll says 27-year-old Jordan M. Hazel is charged with three counts of homicide in connection with the shooting deaths of 23-year-old Keara Wynn...

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North Korea launches missile over Japan.

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north korea launches missile over japan - cnnpolitics

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In a major show of defiance to the international community, North Korea fired a ballistic missile over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido Friday.

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Cassini, NASA's 13-year Saturn mission, has ended

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The spacecraft deliberately sank into Saturn's upper atmosphere at a high speed and plunged itself into the planet just after 6:30a.m. ET Friday. Given the amount of time it takes signals to reach Earth, the final signal and last bits of data reached the Deep Space Network's Canberra Station in Australia about an hour and a half later.

NASA confirmed the spacecraft's demise at 7:55 a.m. ET, as predicted.

For about a minute, Cassini was able to transmit new data about the planet's composition as long as its antenna remained pointed toward Earth, with the assist from small thrusters. Then, the spacecraft burned and disintegrated due to the heat and high pressure of the hostile atmosphere. It became part of the planet it set out to explore.

"It was a perfect spacecraft," said Julie Webster, spacecraft operations chief. "Right to the end, it did everything we asked it to. It's perfect, it's perfect."

No spacecraft has ever been so close to Saturn. The last few seconds of the Cassini mission provided the "first taste" of the atmosphere of Saturn, NASA said.

"You can think of Cassini as the first Saturn probe," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist.

On Thursday, Cassini took its last images and transmitted all the data on its recorder to prepare for the final plunge. The final data from Friday is already being processed and analyzed.

For the team behind the mission, losing their spacecraft is bittersweet: Many are sad that the mission is over but excited to see the groundbreaking science provided by unprecedented proximity to Saturn during the final dive.

"The Cassini operations team did an absolutely stellar job guiding the spacecraft to its noble end," said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager. "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."

The team members that have worked together from concept to the final minutes exchanged hugs and tears in Mission Control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California after the loss of signal was confirmed.

"Things never will be quite the same for those of us on the Cassini team now that the spacecraft is no longer flying," Spilker said. "But, we take comfort knowing that every time we look up at Saturn in the night sky, part of Cassini will be there, too."

After launching in 1997 and reaching the Saturn system in 2004, Cassini spent 13 years exploring the planet and its moons. The data and images led to numerous discoveries that changed how scientists think about our solar system.

"A superb machine in an amazing place doing everything possible to reveal the mysteries and secrets of our solar system," Maize said. "This morning, a lone explorer, a machine made by humankind, finished its mission 900 million miles away. To the very end, the spacecraft did everything we asked. We believe we got every last second of data. We have indeed accomplished everything we set out to do."

Why the dramatic ending?

Cassini had its closest approach with Saturn's moon Titan on Monday, dubbed a "goodbye kiss" by the mission's engineers because it provided the gravity assist that sent the spacecraft on its final encounter with Saturn.

Mission scientists and operators gave Cassini this fiery send-off on purpose. Although many other options were considered -- such as "parking" the spacecraft in orbit -- they didn't want to risk Cassini colliding with any of Saturn's moons.

Cassini data and observations revealed that while seemingly inhospitable to us, the moons Enceladus and Titan could be habitable for some form of life. And NASA didn't want to risk contaminating the moons or any future studies of themwith Earth particles. Although Cassini has been in space for 20 years, microbes from Earth could still exist on the spacecraft without air, water or protection from radiation.

Although the mission itself has ended, the data and observations provided by Cassini will provide new details about the planet, its unique rings and its moons for decades to come.

"Cassini may be gone, but its scientific bounty will keep us occupied for many years," Spilker said. "We've only scratched the surface of what we can learn from the mountain of data it has sent back over its lifetime."

During the final plunge, the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer acted as the "nose" of the spacecraft, directly sampling the composition and structure of the atmosphere -- something that can't be done from orbit, said Hunter Waite, team lead for the spectrometer.

This was in the hopes of investigating the "ring rain" phenomenon discovered by NASA's Voyager mission in the early 1980s, in which it appeared that the rings were raining down material on the planet and causing changes in the atmosphere. The spectrometer could determine what material is from the rings and what material is part of the atmosphere.

Cassini's grand finale actually began in April, with a series of dives between Saturn's rings, close to the planet and its moons, providing unprecedented insight. This is another reason the mission scientists decided on Cassini's particular end-game: The final dive was a dramatic conclusion to this long and scientifically valuable goodbye.

What Cassini taught us and what's next

Inspired to learn more after flybys of Saturn by NASA's Voyager missions, the Cassini mission was designed to be an international effort that united NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.

It is known as the Cassini-Huygens mission because it delivered the European agency's Huygens probe to Titan, the "first descent and landing on a world in the outer solar system," according to NASA.

The Cassini mission has been extended twice and finally used up the last of its rocket propellant this week.

In the end, Cassini witnessed about half of a Saturn year. When the craft arrived, Saturn's northern hemisphere was emerging from winter. As seasons on Saturn last about seven Earth years each, Cassini was just able to witness summer in the northern hemisphere before the mission ended.

Over the years, Cassini has revealed insights about Saturn, its rings and how they operate, the complexities of its moons, the history of the solar system and planet formation and even the other places in our solar system where life might exist: ocean worlds. Cassini has collected more than 450,000 images using a visible light camera.

It has traveled nearly five billion miles, executed 2.5 million commands, conducted 162 targeted flybys of Saturn's moons, completed 294 orbits and its collected data has led to the publication of nearly 4,000 research papers.

When Cassini arrived, it witnessed a giant storm circling the planet for nine months. We learned that there are 3-D structures in the rings. Serendipitous observations showed that icy jets erupt from Enceladus. And Titan not only has seas and lakes of liquid ethane and methane, it has an atmosphere of chemicals that rain down, forming a unique chemistry that could lead to life.

"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. "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."

And the spacecraft itself, as well as its instruments, are informing future missions like NASA's Europa Clipper mission to explore Jupiter's icy moon, launching in the 2020s.

"Cassini has enabled those future missions to be possible," said Jim Green, NASA's director of planetary science.

NASA's New Frontiers competition has called for proposals that include future missions to the Saturn system. The proposals include a Saturn probe that explore the planet deeper than Cassini. Intrigued by Cassini's discoveries, scientists have submitted concepts for future "spacecraft to drift on the methane seas of Titan and fly through the Enceladus plume to collect and analyze samples for signs of biology," according to NASA.

Finalists will be announced at the end of the year, and NASA will explore those mission concepts further.

"For future missions to Saturn, there are a lot of possibilities," Spilker said. "One certainly involves the tiny moon Enceladus and the potential for life in that global ocean. The potential for astrobiology in the ocean on Titan. There's questions about the rings -- can we get even closer and understand those individual ring particles? Lots of questions remain, so that's why we have to go back."

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Cassini, NASA's 13-year Saturn mission, has ended

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The spacecraft deliberately sank into Saturn's upper atmosphere at a high speed and plunged itself into the planet just after 6:30a.m. ET Friday. Given the amount of time it takes signals to reach Earth, the final signal and last bits of data reached the Deep Space Network's Canberra Station in Australia about an hour and a half later.

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Cassini has made a successful death dive into Saturn's upper atmosphere after its 13 year mission.

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The spacecraft deliberately sank into Saturn's upper atmosphere at a high speed and plunged itself into the planet just after 6:30a.m. ET Friday. Given the amount of time it takes signals to reach Earth, the final signal and last bits of data reached the Deep Space Network's Canberra Station in Australia about an hour and a half later.

NASA confirmed the spacecraft's demise at 7:55 a.m. ET, as predicted.

For about a minute, Cassini was able to transmit new data about the planet's composition as long as its antenna remained pointed toward Earth, with the assist from small thrusters. Then, the spacecraft burned and disintegrated due to the heat and high pressure of the hostile atmosphere. It became part of the planet it set out to explore.

"It was a perfect spacecraft," said Julie Webster, spacecraft operations chief. "Right to the end, it did everything we asked it to. It's perfect, it's perfect."

No spacecraft has ever been so close to Saturn. The last few seconds of the Cassini mission provided the "first taste" of the atmosphere of Saturn, NASA said.

"You can think of Cassini as the first Saturn probe," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist.

On Thursday, Cassini took its last images and transmitted all the data on its recorder to prepare for the final plunge. The final data from Friday is already being processed and analyzed.

For the team behind the mission, losing their spacecraft is bittersweet: Many are sad that the mission is over but excited to see the groundbreaking science provided by unprecedented proximity to Saturn during the final dive.

"The Cassini operations team did an absolutely stellar job guiding the spacecraft to its noble end," said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager. "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."

The team members that have worked together from concept to the final minutes exchanged hugs and tears in Mission Control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California after the loss of signal was confirmed.

"Things never will be quite the same for those of us on the Cassini team now that the spacecraft is no longer flying," Spilker said. "But, we take comfort knowing that every time we look up at Saturn in the night sky, part of Cassini will be there, too."

After launching in 1997 and reaching the Saturn system in 2004, Cassini spent 13 years exploring the planet and its moons. The data and images led to numerous discoveries that changed how scientists think about our solar system.

"A superb machine in an amazing place doing everything possible to reveal the mysteries and secrets of our solar system," Maize said. "This morning, a lone explorer, a machine made by humankind, finished its mission 900 million miles away. To the very end, the spacecraft did everything we asked. We believe we got every last second of data. We have indeed accomplished everything we set out to do."

Why the dramatic ending?

Cassini had its closest approach with Saturn's moon Titan on Monday, dubbed a "goodbye kiss" by the mission's engineers because it provided the gravity assist that sent the spacecraft on its final encounter with Saturn.

Mission scientists and operators gave Cassini this fiery send-off on purpose. Although many other options were considered -- such as "parking" the spacecraft in orbit -- they didn't want to risk Cassini colliding with any of Saturn's moons.

Cassini data and observations revealed that while seemingly inhospitable to us, the moons Enceladus and Titan could be habitable for some form of life. And NASA didn't want to risk contaminating the moons or any future studies of themwith Earth particles. Although Cassini has been in space for 20 years, microbes from Earth could still exist on the spacecraft without air, water or protection from radiation.

Although the mission itself has ended, the data and observations provided by Cassini will provide new details about the planet, its unique rings and its moons for decades to come.

"Cassini may be gone, but its scientific bounty will keep us occupied for many years," Spilker said. "We've only scratched the surface of what we can learn from the mountain of data it has sent back over its lifetime."

During the final plunge, the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer acted as the "nose" of the spacecraft, directly sampling the composition and structure of the atmosphere -- something that can't be done from orbit, said Hunter Waite, team lead for the spectrometer.

This was in the hopes of investigating the "ring rain" phenomenon discovered by NASA's Voyager mission in the early 1980s, in which it appeared that the rings were raining down material on the planet and causing changes in the atmosphere. The spectrometer could determine what material is from the rings and what material is part of the atmosphere.

Cassini's grand finale actually began in April, with a series of dives between Saturn's rings, close to the planet and its moons, providing unprecedented insight. This is another reason the mission scientists decided on Cassini's particular end-game: The final dive was a dramatic conclusion to this long and scientifically valuable goodbye.

What Cassini taught us and what's next

Inspired to learn more after flybys of Saturn by NASA's Voyager missions, the Cassini mission was designed to be an international effort that united NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.

It is known as the Cassini-Huygens mission because it delivered the European agency's Huygens probe to Titan, the "first descent and landing on a world in the outer solar system," according to NASA.

The Cassini mission has been extended twice and finally used up the last of its rocket propellant this week.

In the end, Cassini witnessed about half of a Saturn year. When the craft arrived, Saturn's northern hemisphere was emerging from winter. As seasons on Saturn last about seven Earth years each, Cassini was just able to witness summer in the northern hemisphere before the mission ended.

Over the years, Cassini has revealed insights about Saturn, its rings and how they operate, the complexities of its moons, the history of the solar system and planet formation and even the other places in our solar system where life might exist: ocean worlds. Cassini has collected more than 450,000 images using a visible light camera.

It has traveled nearly five billion miles, executed 2.5 million commands, conducted 162 targeted flybys of Saturn's moons, completed 294 orbits and its collected data has led to the publication of nearly 4,000 research papers.

When Cassini arrived, it witnessed a giant storm circling the planet for nine months. We learned that there are 3-D structures in the rings. Serendipitous observations showed that icy jets erupt from Enceladus. And Titan not only has seas and lakes of liquid ethane and methane, it has an atmosphere of chemicals that rain down, forming a unique chemistry that could lead to life.

"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. "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."

And the spacecraft itself, as well as its instruments, are informing future missions like NASA's Europa Clipper mission to explore Jupiter's icy moon, launching in the 2020s.

"Cassini has enabled those future missions to be possible," said Jim Green, NASA's director of planetary science.

NASA's New Frontiers competition has called for proposals that include future missions to the Saturn system. The proposals include a Saturn probe that explore the planet deeper than Cassini. Intrigued by Cassini's discoveries, scientists have submitted concepts for future "spacecraft to drift on the methane seas of Titan and fly through the Enceladus plume to collect and analyze samples for signs of biology," according to NASA.

Finalists will be announced at the end of the year, and NASA will explore those mission concepts further.

"For future missions to Saturn, there are a lot of possibilities," Spilker said. "One certainly involves the tiny moon Enceladus and the potential for life in that global ocean. The potential for astrobiology in the ocean on Titan. There's questions about the rings -- can we get even closer and understand those individual ring particles? Lots of questions remain, so that's why we have to go back."

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Cassini, NASA's 13-year Saturn mission, has ended

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The spacecraft deliberately sank into Saturn's upper atmosphere at a high speed and plunged itself into the planet just after 6:30a.m. ET Friday. Given the amount of time it takes signals to reach Earth, the final signal and last bits of data reached the Deep Space Network's Canberra Station in Australia about an hour and a half later.

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