Many years later, in 1649, a Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens with the improved telescope confirmed that those arms were actually a ring system. He aslo discovered Saturn's moon Titan which is second largest moon in our solar system. Then, in 1675, an Italian-French astronomer named Jean- Dominique Cassini discovered 4 new major moons and a narrow gap that splits Saturn's ring system into two parts, and the gap has since been known as the "Cassini Division."
Years passed. Technology improved. NASA was born.
A NASA robotic spacecraft named Pioneer 11 flew through saturn's outermost rings in 1979, at a distance of 21,000 km from Saturn's cloud tops and captured mesmerizing Saturn and one of it's moon Titan.
Another spacecraft of NASA named Voyager 1 which is now beyond our solar system into interstellar space looked back at Saturn on Nov. 16, 1980, four days after the spacecraft flew past the planet, to observe the appearance of Saturn and its rings from this unique perspective. And Saturn looked completely majestic. It was lord of the rings. Saturn's shadow falls upon the rings here in this capture. About 764 Earths could fit inside Saturn. Till date, Saturn has 82 discovered moons. It is a true gas giant.
Cassini spacecraft During it's 13 year mission around Saturn revealed the Fascinating World of the ringed-planet and its' icy-Moons like Never-before.
To study the origin and evolution of the planet saturn's rings and its moons which could give a better understanding of the origin and evolution of our solar sytem, NASA in collaboration with ESA and Italian Space Agency launched the Cassini-Huygens Spacecraft weighing 5700 kgs. The spacecrfat lifted off the earth on Oct. 15, 1997 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40 using a U.S. Air Force Titan IVB/Centaur rocket.
Cassini-Huygens mission included two spacecrafts. One is Cassini spacecraft to study saturn and other is Huygens probe which would land on the Saturn's moon Titan. The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft during vibration and thermal testing in 1996 can be seen below. Cassini didn't head straight to Saturn. Rather, its mission
involved complicated orbital mechanics. It went past several planets —
including Venus (twice), Earth and Jupiter —
to get a speed boost by taking advantage of each planet's gravity. The spacecraft took 7 years to
travel 2 billion miles to reach Saturn and finally
entered orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004.
Distant Alien Worlds Revealed
When Cassini snapped the first photo of the rings of Saturn, it had amazed the world. Over the course of 13 years of Cassini's journey, it has explored the fascinating world of saturn's icy moons, flew through it's rings and had done many adventures providing scientists crucial information. Many wonderful discoveries followed. The rings are made up of small particles of ice and dust. Eventually Huygens probe landed on the moon Titan revealing that it has many lakes of methane. Enceladus, one of the moons of saturn has liquid oceans underneath the ice surface.On Enceladus, Scientists observed plumes containing water vapor spewing from its south polar surface, with jets moving 250 kg of water vapor every second at up to 2,189 km/h (1,360 mph) into space.
In the next 7 days, I would be writing about these amazing discoveries and pictures taken by the cassini spacecraft during its 13 year mission from 2004-2017. The spacecraft was intentionally crashed into Saturn at the end it's mission. So, the next 7 days is going to be exciting. To give you a sample, Below are the methane lakes found Saturn's moon Titan. Yes, next 7 days is going to be exciting.
#Cassini Diaries - Saturn
Information/Picture Credit : NASA/JPL
Sreekanth Panjala
Science Popularizer | Writer
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