AN incredible era in space exploration came to a spectacular end at 11:55 GMT yesterday when the Cassini space probe self-destructed by plunging into the atmosphere of Saturn.

The probe, which had run out of fuel, lasted less than a minute before breaking apart, ending its 13 years around Saturn – the sixth planet from the sun and the solar system’s second-largest.

Nasa had decided that after running out of fuel, Cassini should not be allowed to meander randomly among the planet’s 62 moons.

At mission control in Pasadena, California, the loss of signal from the spacecraft was met with restrained applause as Nasa’s Earl Maize told fellow controllers: “Congratulations to you all. This has been an incredible mission, an incredible spacecraft and you’re all an incredible team.

“I’m going to call this end of mission. Project manager off the net.”

Some scientists have said that headlines proclaiming that Cassini was on a “suicide mission” or hurtling towards its “death plunge” are inappropriate and insensitive, in light of people’s tendency to humanise robots and react emotionally, including mourning their demise.

Alex Parker, a planetary astronomer at the Southwest Research Institute in Maryland, said on social media: “I really, really wish people would stop referring to the Cassini end of mission in terms related to suicide.

“I don’t really care how sombre you are feeling about the mission. It’s a machine, and you’re making light of something very serious.”

Preston Dyches, a spokesperson for Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, tweeted: “It’s crushing me, all the stories calling Cassini’s end of mission dying, suicide, death, brutal, killing ... No matter how brave and noble and responsible this ending is, people still want to make it a tragedy.

“Sure, anthropomorphise Cassini, but if it were a person, you’d not speak about its impending demise with such zeal.”

Nasa has avoided any mention of death in its press releases about Cassini, and referred to the end of the mission as a “grand finale”.

The loss of signal was an indication that Cassini was tumbling through Saturn’s gases, and it’s thought it could have survived no longer than about 45 seconds, signalling the end of one of the most successful space missions in history.

During its 13-year sojourn, the probe has transformed our understanding of Saturn. It has recorded massive storms circling the globe and given us new insights into the potential habitability of Saturn’s moons.

In 2005, it put a small robot called Huygens on the surface of Titan – a strange moon where liquid methane pours from an orange sky, running into huge lakes. Among the images it sent back were some of pebbles which had been rounded by the flowing methane.

The moon Enceladus was seen spurting water vapour into space from cracks at its south pole. The water came from an ocean beneath the moon’s icy shell.

And when the spacecraft flew through the water spirals, it showed that conditions in the sub-surface ocean were probably suitable for life.

Jonathan Lunine, from Cornell University, New York, summed up the feelings of many: “I feel sad but I’ve felt sad the whole week; we knew this was going happen. And Cassini performed exactly as she was supposed to and I bet there is some terrific data on the ground now about Saturn’s atmosphere.”