During the last several months, Cassini has been flying at higher inclinations around Saturn—that is, the planetary probe is orbiting closer to the planet’s north and south poles. This positioning allows imaging instruments onboard Cassini to see the prominent ring system of the planet from above them and from beneath them, too. Saturn, and its distinctive ring system, is considered one of the most interesting objects in the solar system to view, both by professionals and amateurs alike.

Saturn’s rings are about 6,630 to 120,700 kilometers (4,120 to 75,000 miles) above the equator of Saturn. On average, each ring is about one kilometer in thickness. They are made of iron oxide, silica rock, and ice particles. Their size ranges from mere specks of dust to the size of a German-made Volkswagen Beetle (“Bug”). Cassini’s instruments have previously discovered that the rings of Saturn possess their own atmosphere, mostly composed of oxygen gas produced when ultraviolet light traveling the Sun collides with water ice within the rings.

Dramatic images of Saturn and its rings as taken by Cassini can be found at the NASA “Cassini: Unlocking Saturn’s Secrets” Web site (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html) and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (California Institute of Technology) “Cassini-Huygens: Mission to Saturn and Titan” Web site (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm).

The Cassini mission is an international project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), the Italian Space Agency, and other academic and commercial organizations. It was named for French-Italian astronomer Jean-Dominique Cassini, who discovered a gap in Saturn's main rings—what is now called the Cassini Division.

The Cassini spacecraft began its mission on October 15, 1997. It traveled about 2.175 billion miles (3.5 billion kilometers) in order to reach Saturn and its system of rings and moons on June 30, 2004. After Cassini went into orbit about Saturn—the sixth planet in our solar system away from the Sun, and its second largest—it began sending back images and data to the Earth. It will continue to explore the Saturnian system for at least four years. Cassini uses a number of specialized cameras and other instruments for its investigation of Saturn, Titan, and other members of the planetary system.

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Astronomy  ESA  NASA  Physics  Research  Science  Solar system  Space  William Atkins