Antaletriangle
03-23-2009, 05:37 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Avr-nwbmPt8&feature=PlayList&p=BF014E55502DFA77&index=0&playnext=1
With its famous rings, Saturn is the most distant planet clearly visible to the naked eye. But how did the rings get there and when were they formed? To study the planet in detail, scientists needed to get closer. So on 15 October 1997, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was launched.
The Cassini-Huygens is one of the most ambitious spacecraft ever launched, taking seven years to reach Saturn. The mission itself consists of two separate probes. The first is the enormous Cassini probe, designed to gather information about all aspects of the Saturnian system, from its many rings to its 33 moons,(now known to have 60). The second is the Huygens probe, a smaller wok-shaped craft, attached to the side of Cassini. Its task is to plunge through the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest and most mysterious moon.
The project is a joint NASA, European Space Agency (ESA) and Italian Space Agency venture. It has cost $3.27 billion and involves over 17 countries. It was inspired by another successful mission- the launch of the two Voyager Deep Space probes. These left Earth in 1977, and arrived separately at Saturn in 1980 and 1981. They sent back revolutionary data, changing what scientists thought about the Saturnian system.
They revealed that Saturn's rings are far more complex and dynamic than any one had ever imagined. They also suggested that the rings had been formed after the planet itself. Why? And how old were they? But the Voyager probes had to move on, past Uranus and Neptune and beyond, leaving these fundamental questions about the rings unanswered.
Voyager also raised another mystery - Titan. Titan isn't just Saturn's largest moon, it is also shrouded in a thick orange atmosphere, composed mainly of nitrogen - similar to the Earth's atmosphere. Finding a place so far away which shared features with our own world was exceptionally tantalising.
The building of the Cassini-Huygens project began in 1990. The Cassini probe was named after the French-Italian astronomer Jean-Dominique Cassini (1625-1712). Its job was to fly to Saturn, and remain in orbit around the planet for four years. The Huygens probe, named after Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) who first discovered Titan, was to detach itself from Cassini and gather crucial information about the chemical composition of the moon's atmosphere and to reveal what kind of landscape lay beneath the clouds.
Not surprisingly, the probes were armed with a formidable array of instruments. Cassini is capable of measuring everything from the planet's huge magnetosphere to tiny particles of cosmic dust. At the heart of the mission are the cameras - the so-called Imaging Science Subsystem. These have both a long and short focal length, which gives both high resolution pictures and the wider context. Cassini also carries a set of spectrometers which look at the same things as the cameras, but which can see wavelengths beyond those visible to the human eye. These wavelengths allow the spectrometer to deduce the chemical composition of whatever is being looked at.
The combined weight of the two probes was a massive 5,712kg and it was to travel across a billion miles of space. This created a whole new set of problems - how to get such a massive craft to its destination.
With its famous rings, Saturn is the most distant planet clearly visible to the naked eye. But how did the rings get there and when were they formed? To study the planet in detail, scientists needed to get closer. So on 15 October 1997, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was launched.
The Cassini-Huygens is one of the most ambitious spacecraft ever launched, taking seven years to reach Saturn. The mission itself consists of two separate probes. The first is the enormous Cassini probe, designed to gather information about all aspects of the Saturnian system, from its many rings to its 33 moons,(now known to have 60). The second is the Huygens probe, a smaller wok-shaped craft, attached to the side of Cassini. Its task is to plunge through the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest and most mysterious moon.
The project is a joint NASA, European Space Agency (ESA) and Italian Space Agency venture. It has cost $3.27 billion and involves over 17 countries. It was inspired by another successful mission- the launch of the two Voyager Deep Space probes. These left Earth in 1977, and arrived separately at Saturn in 1980 and 1981. They sent back revolutionary data, changing what scientists thought about the Saturnian system.
They revealed that Saturn's rings are far more complex and dynamic than any one had ever imagined. They also suggested that the rings had been formed after the planet itself. Why? And how old were they? But the Voyager probes had to move on, past Uranus and Neptune and beyond, leaving these fundamental questions about the rings unanswered.
Voyager also raised another mystery - Titan. Titan isn't just Saturn's largest moon, it is also shrouded in a thick orange atmosphere, composed mainly of nitrogen - similar to the Earth's atmosphere. Finding a place so far away which shared features with our own world was exceptionally tantalising.
The building of the Cassini-Huygens project began in 1990. The Cassini probe was named after the French-Italian astronomer Jean-Dominique Cassini (1625-1712). Its job was to fly to Saturn, and remain in orbit around the planet for four years. The Huygens probe, named after Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) who first discovered Titan, was to detach itself from Cassini and gather crucial information about the chemical composition of the moon's atmosphere and to reveal what kind of landscape lay beneath the clouds.
Not surprisingly, the probes were armed with a formidable array of instruments. Cassini is capable of measuring everything from the planet's huge magnetosphere to tiny particles of cosmic dust. At the heart of the mission are the cameras - the so-called Imaging Science Subsystem. These have both a long and short focal length, which gives both high resolution pictures and the wider context. Cassini also carries a set of spectrometers which look at the same things as the cameras, but which can see wavelengths beyond those visible to the human eye. These wavelengths allow the spectrometer to deduce the chemical composition of whatever is being looked at.
The combined weight of the two probes was a massive 5,712kg and it was to travel across a billion miles of space. This created a whole new set of problems - how to get such a massive craft to its destination.