Cassini Huygens Saturn mission

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The Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn is the most ambitious effort in planetary space exploration ever mounted. A joint endeavour of the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA and the Italian space agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), Cassini-Huygens is sending a sophisticated robotic spacecraft to orbit the ringed planet and study the Saturnian system in detail over a four-year period.

On board Cassini is a scientific probe called Huygens that will be released from the main spacecraft to parachute through the atmosphere to the surface of Saturn’s largest and most interesting moon, Titan.

Saturn is the second largest planet in the Solar System. Like the other gaseous outer planets – Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune – it has an atmosphere made up mostly of hydrogen and helium. Saturn’s distinctive, bright rings are made up of ice and rock particles ranging in size from grains of sand to a freight container.

More moons of greater variety orbit Saturn than any other planet. So far, observations from Earth and space have found Saturnian satellites ranging from small asteroid-size bodies to the aptly named Titan, which is the second largest moon of the Solar System (after Jupiter's Ganymede) and is larger than the planet Mercury.

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Titan is a fascinating world because its thick nitrogen-atmosphere is very rich in organic compounds which are constantly reacting. If they were found on a planet with Earth-like conditions, their presence would be considered as a sign of life.

If water exists on Titan, it cannot be in liquid form because its surface is far too cold (at minus 180°C). In fact very little is yet known about the surface and scientists speculate that Huygens may find lakes or even oceans of a mixture of liquid ethane, methane and nitrogen.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is named after two European astronomers from the 17th century. The Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) discovered Saturn's rings and Titan.

A few years later the French-Italian Astronomer Jean-Dominique Cassini (1625-1712) discovered Saturn’s four other major moons – Iapetus, Rhea, Tethys and Dione. He also discovered that Saturn’s rings are split largely into two parts by a narrow gap, known since as the 'Cassini Division'.

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The Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn FULL TEXT

CASSINI PHOTO ESSAY

PHOTO SOURCE: NASA Cassini-Huygens Mission

TEXT SOURCE: ESA