Who is Cassini-Huygens

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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.

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

 

As shown in the image above, Cassini's trajectory included several gravitational slingshot maneuvers: two Venus, one Earth and one Jupiter flybys to increase Cassini's momentum.

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 auroras are glowing regions of ionized gas appearing at the poles, produced by charged particles from the solar wind.

Saturn's Atmosphere

 

Saturn's atmosphere is similar to Jupiter's. This color enhanced image [above] allows scientists to study the bands that run parallel to the equator, indicating violent winds. Saturn is one of the windiest places in the Solar System, with wind speeds of 1800 kilometers per hour at the equator. The temperature in the part of the atmosphere where "weather" occurs, the troposphere, ranges from about -130ºC to about +80ºC. The top visible cloud deck is made up of ammonia clouds, found about 100 kilometers below the top of the troposphere. The temperature there is about -250ºC. The hydrogen gas, which makes up most of Saturn's atmosphere, changes to liquid with depth as the pressure increases. Below the liquid hydrogen lies the heavier liquid helium. Scientists believe Saturn has a rocky core about ten times the mass of the Earth at the center.

Artist's Concept: Titan's Surface

 

Titan's atmosphere is mostly nitrogen with some organic compounds, such as methane. On earth the presence of methane is an indicator of life. So scientists are puzzled by the methane on Titan...where does it come from? Prior to Cassini, the Keck Observatory revealed methane-containing clouds near Titan's south pole. Did this mean Titan has weather similar to Earth's? Is Titan's surface solid or liquid? Little was known until the Cassini mission.

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 many natural satellites. The spacecraft consists of two main elements: the NASA-designed and -constructed Cassini orbiter, named for the...

read the rest of the Wikipedia article

Cassini-Huygens Videos 

CASSINI - HUYGENS : THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY

THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY OF THE CASSINI MISSION AND THE HUYGENS PROBE TO SATURN AND TITAN. FOR MORE INFO FOLLOW THE LINK: saturn.jpl.nasa.gov FOOTAGE FROM THE BBC AND NASA MUSIC - CONQUEST BY BILL CONTI. FROM ROCKY III

Runtime: 4:41 | 37484 views | 64 Comments

 

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Titan's Surface and the Huygens Probe

Huygens Lands on Titan 

NASA - Huygens Probe Lands on Saturn's Moon, Titan

This movie was built with data collected during the 147-minute plunge through Titan's thick orange-brown atmosphere to a soft sandy riverbed by the European Space Agency's Huygens Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer on Jan. 14, 2005. In 4 minutes and 40 seconds, the movie shows what the probe 'saw' within the few hours of the descent and the landing. On approach, Titan appeared as just a little disk in the sky among the stars, but after landing, the probe's camera resolved little grains of ...

Runtime: 4:50 | 50820 views | 109 Comments

 

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Cassini-Huygens Reading 

Titan Unveiled: Saturn's Mysterious Moon Explored

Titan Unveiled: Saturn's Mysterious Moon Explored

by: Ralph Lorenz, Jacqueline Mitton

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Amazon Price: $19.77 (as of 12/10/2009) Buy Now

Lifting Titan's Veil: Exploring the Giant Moon of Saturn

Lifting Titan's Veil: Exploring the Giant Moon of Saturn

by: Ralph Lorenz, Jacqueline Mitton

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Amazon Price: $36.19 (as of 12/10/2009) Buy Now

The Titans of Saturn: Leadership and Performance Lessons from the Cassini-Huygens Mission

The Titans of Saturn: Leadership and Performance Lessons from the Cassini-Huygens Mission

by: Bram Groen, Charles Hampden-Turner

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Amazon Price: $29.95 (as of 12/10/2009) Buy Now

Cassini at Saturn: Huygens Results (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration)

Cassini at Saturn: Huygens Results (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration)

by: David M. Harland

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Amazon Price: $29.67 (as of 12/10/2009) Buy Now

Mission to Saturn: Cassini and the Huygens Probe (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration)

Mission to Saturn: Cassini and the Huygens Probe (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration)

by: David M. Harland

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Amazon Price: $34.16 (as of 12/10/2009) Buy Now

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