Saturn has fascinated astronomers ever since Galileo discovered a funny shaped planet that he described as having “ears”. The ears he saw were the breathtakingly beautiful rings made of ice particles from dust sized to boulder to a few mountain sized (Saturn: Rings). When the voyager probe flew past it also something that intrigued astronomers, the moon Titan appeared hazy. More had to be found out about Saturn, its moons, and Titan, the moon with an atmosphere. Cassini was named for the astronomer Jean-Dominique Cassini who discovered four of Saturn’s moons (FAQs Cassini-Huygens). The Cassini-Huygens probe was a huge international cooperation between three space programs: NASA, the ESA, ASI the Italian space program (International Collaboration). …show more content…
Cassini took several pictures and even caught a transit of Io across Jupiter in its fly-bys. There was some controversy at the mission plan for Cassini. Cassini carries three RTGs or radioisotope thermoelectric generators powered by decaying plutonium (Cassini-Huygens). Critics maintained that the 73 pounds of plutonium could irradiate and contaminate people leading to death in the launch process or in the probe’s fly-by of Earth (Cassini Spacecraft Nears Liftoff). NASA released statements to the contrary sating that such a risk was extremely unlikely and designed the mission to minimize the risk of any radioactive fallout should something go wrong. Cassini lifted off successfully and in 1999 passed by the Earth without incident. Cassini would travel for another five years until 2004 finally reaching Saturn …show more content…
Cassini discovered that there are icy plumes that erupt from the surface of Escalades. The ice volcanoes vent particles out into space and create one of the rings around Saturn (Cain). Later in 2012 Cassini flew through one of these eruptions to measure it the plumes composition finding that it is mostly water vapor, organic molecules and salts (NewsFlash). Another of Cassini’s discoveries used radar to map the surface of Titan. It found that there are rivers, lakes and precipitation, made of organic compounds, mostly methane and ethane (Major). The rivers and lakes look very similar to the ones we have on Earth despite the different composition of materials in the colder environment. Cassini also gave astronomers a more complete view of Saturn’s seasonal weather and a full view of the hexagon storm at the north pole as well as hurricanes at both poles (Major). Cassini has taken more than 300,000 pictures and has discovered 7 previously unknown moons (Major). More recently in 2013 Cassini discovered the formation of what could be a new moon at the edge of the rings accreting the icy material (Cooper). Cassini will continue its extended mission with