User blog comment:Maslab/On the subject of Noble Six/@comment-104730-20130708021609/@comment-663564-20130708054925

And yet, they seemed to have all reached the decision that this was the best way to end it.

"It was important, of course, because this wasn't just Bungie's farewell to Noble Six and the planet Reach - but to the studio's Halo franchise as a whole. It was important "from the perspective of Bungie saying goodbye to the entire universe," said Tung. "We spent so much time wrestling with how to end the game, and I think it ended up being such a great farewell, not just for the game, but for the entire involvement in the universe and a fitting farewell to Halo from Bungie."

"And there wasn't really anything we could do with the end, the demise, of Noble 6 because that leads into the events just prior to Halo 1," said Lehto. "It was a great way just to bring everything full circle for the franchise.""

I still want someone to explain how Halsey's eulogy would fit into all this if Six survived. She is not, in any way, the kind of person who would give a eulogy like that unless she was certain that they were dead. If she really was comparing Six's skill to that of the Chief's, then she would know just how capable Six was. And she flat out told an interrogator "do not underestimate him." I highly doubt she would accept such a thing without verifying it herself.

And as stated before, the UNSC can pick apart the remains of an artificial sun's nova to see whether or not one of their ships was destroyed with it. They could probably do something similar around the place where Six died.