Answer:
Cassie was correct, the planet was a wasteland. The crew could not have realized the truth sooner because without stepping foot on the planet, they wouldn't have known it would collapse. To support this, here's a quote from the passage: "But just as the probe released its sampling arm, the dark spot split down the middle, pulling back to reveal a huge amber eye. The terrain around the probe rose up like mud-encased claws, pulling it down into what could only be described as a mouth, if a planet could have such a thing. Sighs turned to horrified gasps as the probe disappeared in one quick gulp." (Mystery Planet, paragraph 10.)
Explanation:
The quote above is from the passage, paragraph 10 and clearly explains the planet collapsing. I did the assignment.
I hope this helped, here's a screenshot of the quote from the passage!