Mission: Saturn & Titan
The sixth planet from the Sun, Saturn is a gas giant, comprised mostly of helium and hydrogen. Its complex system of rings, made up of rock and ice, extend hundreds of thousands of miles from the planet. Believed to be comprised of shattered moons, asteroids and comets, the rings are only about 30 miles thick and orbit at different speeds.
Saturn has approximately 34 known satellites and moons, including: Titan, Enceladus, Rhea, Phoebe, Pan, Atlas, Prometheus and Iapetus. However, Titan, which is larger than Mercury and Pluto, is of particular interest because it has a thick atmosphere.
Lens Contents
- Saturn
- Saturn Facts
- Titan
- Titan Facts
- The Cassini-Huygens Spacecraft
- The Cassini-Huygens Voyage
- History of Saturn Exploration
- Saturn's Auroras
- Saturn's Atmosphere
- Artist's Concept: Titan's Surface
- Wikipedia: Cassini-Huygens at a Glance
- Cassini-Huygens Videos
- Titan's Surface and the Huygens Probe
- Huygens Lands on Titan
- Space Exploration Links
- Cassini-Huygens Reading
- Featured Space Exploration Lenses
- Leslie's Other Lenses
- Guestbook
- Googleinated
- Scientific American
Saturn
Saturn Facts
- Saturn is 1,429,400,000 kilometers from the Sun
- A Saturnian year is 29.46 Earth years
- There are 34 known moons and satellites
- Saturn is visibly flat at its poles, due to its fast rotation on its axis
- Saturn doesn't have a surface in the sense that Earth does
- Saturn's atmosphere is approximately 75% hydrogen and 25% helium, with trace amounts of water, methane, ammonia and other substances
- Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in our Solar System
- Saturn's rotation period is 10 hours
Titan
Titan Facts
- Titan is Saturn's largest moon and the second largest in the Solar System [after Jupiter's Ganymede]
- Titan's rotation is about 16 days, with the same side always facing Saturn
- Titan is the only moon known to have clouds and a thick, planet-like atmosphere
- It's mass is 1/45 that of Earth
- The moon's surface diameter is 5150 kilometers
- The surface temperature is -180ºC
- The atmospheric composition is nitrogen and methane, with traces of ammonia, argon and ethane
The Cassini-Huygens Spacecraft
Launched in October 1997, the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan was a joint effort of by ESA, NASA and the Italian space agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI). Cassini-Huygens reached Saturn on July 1, 2004. Months later, on December 25, 2004, the Huygens probe was released to land on Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005.ESA describes the mission objectives as the following:
1. what is the source of heat inside Saturn that produces 87 per cent more energy than the planet absorbs from sunlight?
2. what is the origin of Saturn's rings?
3. where do the subtle colours in the rings come from?
4. are there any more moons?
5. why has the moon Enceladus such an abnormally smooth surface? (Has recent melting erased craters?)
6. what is the origin of the dark organic material covering one side of the moon Iapetus?
7. which chemical reactions are occurring in Titan's atmosphere?
8. what is the source of methane, a compound associated to biological activity on Earth, which is so abundant in Titan's atmosphere?
9. are there any oceans on Titan?
10. do more complex organic compounds and 'pre-biotic' molecules exist on Titan?
The Cassini-Huygens Voyage
History of Saturn Exploration
Most of what we know about Saturn is a result of the Voyager I and II and Cassini-Huygens probes. The Cassini probe is still in orbit around Saturn. 
Ancient astronomers believe Saturn is a star in the evening sky. 
1609 AD Galileo builds the first telescope. Gazing at Saturn, he discovers it's a planet with, what he believes, are two large moons. 
1655 Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens improves upon Galileo's telescope design and aims his better-quality telescope at Saturn: discovering that Saturn's two "moons" are actually a flat, thin ring encircling the planet. Huygens also discovers Saturn's largest moon, Titan. 
1675 Jean-Dominique Cassini discovers that Saturn's 'ring' has an outer and an inner ring, separated by a dark band, which has become known as the "Cassini Division.' 
1875ish Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell proves that Saturn's rings consist of many small particles, orbiting the planet like individual moons. 
1944 The Dutch-born astronomer Gerard Kuiper discovers that Titan's unique atmosphere contains methane. Only Jupiter's moon Io and Neptune's moon Triton are known to have atmospheres, but they are very thin. 
1979 Saturn is visited for the first time by Pioneer 11, which flies within 20,000 kilometers of the planet's top cloud layer. Pioneer 11 discovers that the 'Cassini' division isn't empty, as believed, but consists of thin dust rings. Furthermore, the probe discovers yet another ring beyond the outermost known ring and that Saturn has a strong magnetic field, more powerful than Earth's. The magnetic field means Saturn's core of liquid hydrogen and helium must be compressed so much that they exhibit the properties of a metal. Pioneer 11 also discovers that Saturn radiates more heat than it receives from the Sun. 
1980 Voyager 1 visits Saturn, sending back the first high-resolution images of the planet, rings and satellites. Voyager 1 sees Saturnian cloud cover, storms, weather systems, and, for the first time, polar auroral lights. Surface features of some of the moons are also seen for the first time. Titan's atmosphere, however, proves impenetrable and Voyager 1 is unable to observe the moon's surface. 
1981 Voyager 2 continues the study of Saturn, providing more close-up photos of the planet's rings and moons, discovering several new satellites. The probe also examines Saturn's upper atmosphere with its radar, before continuing its journey toward Uranus. 
2004 The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft enters into orbit around Saturn. In June, it conducts a flyby of the moon Phoebe and two flybys of Titan, before releasing the Huygens probe on December 25, 2004. Huygens lands on the surface of Titan on January 14, 2005. 
Saturn's Auroras
Saturn's Atmosphere
Artist's Concept: Titan's Surface
The Huygens probe discovered liquid methane on Titan's surface, punctuated by rocks of dirty ice. The liquid methane or ethane may form huge seas hundreds of miles across. Titan's high northern latitudes are dotted with these seas and lakes. There are also massive windblown sand dunes of dark brown organic material, which may accumulate and grow from smog particulates falling from the sky.
Although nitrogen is the dominant gas in Titan's upper atmosphere, methane is more abundant in the lower atmosphere. This primitive methane atmosphere is comparable to early Earth's.
Over the last several years, Cassini's radar observations of Titan have revealed what may be an internal ocean, underneath Titan's crust, similar to Jupiter's moon Europa. Scientists believe the ocean may be composed of water with a little ammonia.
Wikipedia: Cassini-Huygens at a Glance
Cassini?Huygens is a joint NASA/ESA/ASI robotic spacecraft mission currently studying the planet Saturn and its moons. The spacecraft consists of two main elements: the NASA '''Cassini orbiter, named after the Italian-French astronomer Giovanni Dom...
Cassini-Huygens Videos
Cassini-Huygens Saturn/Titan mission
Decent through clouds to Titan's surface (click the button to the right of the volume control to see the video in its true format- 1.7:3) Source- http://www.nasa.gov/lb/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07234.html
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Titan's Surface and the Huygens Probe
Huygens Lands on Titan
NASA Cassini-Huygens Titan surface simulation~ Mozart
Titan is the most fascinating place in the Solar System. January 13, 2006 This is an animated artist interpretation of the area surrounding the Huygens landing site, based on images and data returned Jan. 14, 2005. On January 14, 2005, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Huygens probe reached the upper layer of Titan's atmosphere and landed on the surface after a parachute descent 2 hours and 28 minutes later. As part of the joint NASA/ESA/ASI mission to Saturn and its moons, the Huygens probe was sent from the Cassini spacecraft to explore Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Titan's organic chemistry may be like that of the primitive Earth around 4000 million years ago, and it may hold clues about how life began on our planet. I so thank you my dearest friend NASA JPL Dr. Rosaly Lopes. Principal Scientist and Cassini RADAR Investigation Scientist Lead Scientist/Group Supervisor, Geophysics and Planetary Geosciences Earth and Space Sciences Division Jet Propulsion Laboratory Pasadena, CA 91109 Rosaly and I love animals, nature and science. Mozart, violin concerto http://www.jpl.nasa.gov http://planetary.org www.sergiofoto.tk
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Space Exploration Links
Cassini-Huygens: Overview
The Cassini-Huygens mission to the Saturnian regio more...0 points
ESA - Cassini-Huygens
ESA's Cassini-Huygens website features news, statu more...0 points
Cassini-Huygens Reading
Titan Unveiled: Saturn's Mysterious Moon Explored
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Lifting Titan's Veil: Exploring the Giant Moon of Saturn
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The Titans of Saturn: Leadership and Performance Lessons from the Cassini-Huygens Mission
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Cassini at Saturn: Huygens Results (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration)
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Amazon Price: $29.16 (as of 08/30/2008)
Mission to Saturn: Cassini and the Huygens Probe (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration)
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Amazon Price: $29.67 (as of 08/30/2008)
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Guestbook
Share your stories, sightings, thoughts, rants, raves...
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PleasantValley
Saturn is fascinating. I like how you integrated the history of its exploration into this lens. Posted July 08, 2008 |
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privateInvestigation
Excellent lens and terrific information about Saturn & Titan planets, I like your lens very much. Posted June 19, 2008 |
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manxsal
Interesting lens! 5 stars :) Posted May 29, 2008 |
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tdove
Thanks for joining G Rated Lense Factory! Posted May 26, 2008 |
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hearthealth
Hi Leslie, thanks for demo-ing the Polaroid. With those pixes and the layouting, 5*! Hope to see you in my home and car electronics lenses! Posted May 23, 2008 |
Googleinated
- Saturn's Titan, Like Earth, Has Surface Liquid, UA, NASA Say
- Former Tucsonan Carolyn Porco is the leader of the Imaging Science team on the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan. She served as scientific ...
- ASI: an ocean beneath Titan’s icy surface
- Titan is one of the main targets of the mission "Cassini-Huygens", launched from Cape Canaveral on Oct. 15, 1997. A collaboration between NASA, the European ...
- How much water is there in space?
- Glancing at the week's other big space story - confirmation that the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is dotted with lakes - you might be forgiven ...
Scientific American
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