The mission of the 2000 kg Cassini spacecraft concluded on 2017 September 15, by its deliberate entry into Saturn’s atmosphere at some 31.1 km s⁻¹. Observations, using Hubble and groundbased observatories, to attempt optical detection of this 0.25 kT “artificial meteor” are summarized. No signatures were identified. A challenge with observing the event is that due to atmospheric drag, its timing was not completely deterministic months or even days in advance, a particular problem for space observatories. While imaging observations needed no geometric specification more than “Saturn,” observations with spectrometers required pointing the instrument aperture or slit at the specific impact site. Since giant planet longitude systems are not always familiar, distribution of an unambiguous “finder chart” showing the location of the predicted entry site on the disk is essential, as is clarity on whether stated times are spacecraft event time, or Earth received time (light-travel time, 83 minutes, later).

2000 公斤卡西尼号航天器的任务于 2017 年 9 月 15 日结束，它有意以大约 31.1 km s ^{-1 的}速度进入土星大气层. 总结了使用哈勃和地面天文台尝试光学探测这颗 0.25 kT“人造流星”的观测结果。没有发现任何签名。观测该事件的一个挑战是，由于大气阻力，它的时间不是完全确定的，提前几个月甚至几天，这是空间天文台的一个特殊问题。虽然成像观察不需要比“土星”更多的几何规格，但光谱仪的观察需要将仪器孔径或狭缝指向特定的撞击点。由于巨行星经度系统并不总是很熟悉，因此必须分发一个明确的“发现者图表”，显示磁盘上预测进入地点的位置，明确规定的时间是航天器事件时间还是地球接收时间（光- 行程时间，83 分钟，