NASA's Cassini Discovers Huygens Probe from Cassini/Huygens mission

Saturn is, without doubt, one of the most famous representatives of our solar system, but what do we know about this fascinating planet, which is typically characterized by its gigantic ring system, to investigate our neighbors in detail?

The spacecraft collect important data about various planets and their environments during such missions, which scientists on Earth use to gain important new insights into the composition and properties of these impressive celestial bodies. The most significant mission to date aimed at exploring Saturn was named Cassini-Huygens. Research source link

Two space probes were sent to the famous ringed planet and its moons. During their journeys, both the Cassini and the Huygens made extraordinary discoveries on Saturn and its moons.

Credit to NASA/JPL-Caltech

A Brief Overview of Saturn:

Before we approach the exciting discoveries of the two space probes, we would like to take a general look at Saturn together with you. As many of you already know, Saturn is the sixth planet in our solar system and has a diameter of around one hundred twenty-five hundred kilometers.

Saturn is not only nine point five times larger than our Earth, but it is also the second-largest planet in our solar system.

Unlike our blue home planet, Saturn is a gas planet with no solid surface because its mass is primarily composed of gases such as hydrogen and helium. In pictures of Saturn, one could get the idea that the celestial body is enclosed by a single gigantic ring.

In reality, however, this is a ring system consisting of hundreds of thousands of individual rings. The rings themselves are in turn composed mainly of lumps of rock and ice. To date, At least 82 moons have been discovered near Saturn, the largest of which is Titan.

However, experts believe that there could be many more moons in the vicinity of the ringed planet that we have not yet discovered. The Cassini-Huygens mission, which we will discuss in the following, was not the first project of the international space agencies that was aimed at an unmanned flight to the sixth planet of our solar system.

The space probes sent out in the 1970s and 1980s simply did not yet have the technical capabilities of their present-day counterparts, which is why the data collected during the Pioneer and Voyager missions was informative but ultimately could only provide a rough picture of Saturn. This was to change fundamentally with the Cassini-Huygens mission.

The Cassini-Huygens Mission:

When the two space probes Cassini and Huygens left Earth on October 15, 1997, and began their journey towards Saturn, more than 15 years had already passed since the last Saturn mission.

The two spacecraft were the result of a large-scale joint project between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian ASI Cassini was designed as an orbiter, which means that it was a space probe capable of exploring Saturn from its orbit.

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The Huygens was a representative of the lander class. Their task was to land on the surface of Titan and collect important data and images of Saturn’s largest moon.

The Cassini-Huygens project was extended several times by the responsible space agencies and finally ended on September 15th, 2017. The new findings of Saturn and its moons that were collected during this time have caused sheer amazement in the world of astronomy.

Astonishing Findings Of Titan:

The Cassini and Huygens spacecraft, in contrast to their predecessors, were designed solely to study Saturn and its surroundings permanently, whereas the Voyager probes in Pioneer 11 were merely short-lived flybys that were terminated after a short time. Aside from the ringed planet itself, the countless moons of Saturn had to be observed. Research on NASA

The Cassini discovered undreamt of qualities on some of these natural satellites, such as oceans below the surface of the moon and some places where water was present in liquid form. This discovery was a sensation in the world of science since liquid water is generally considered the basic prerequisite for the creation of life.

Credit to NASA/JPL-Caltech

The lander Pro Huygens reached the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan was in January 2005. At that time, scientists knew very little about the largest moon of the ringed planet, so they hoped to obtain a lot of new information from the Huygens project.

The titan photos taken during the Voyager missions only showed a celestial body hidden behind a reddish nebula, but no one could say at that time what was ultimately hidden behind the haze.

The Huygens finally provided the information so eagerly awaited by the experts. According to them, Titan is a moon with a solid surface that is covered with countless methane and ethane oceans.

After the Huygens had also collected data on the winds in the moon's atmosphere and examined the strange dune-like formations on Titan's surface, the mission of the unmanned space probe came to its scheduled end. However, the journey of Cassini had only just begun.

How Long Does a Saturn Day Last?

For a long time, the question of how long a day on Saturn lasts remained unanswered. Because gas planets differ significantly from solid celestial bodies in terms of rotation, several factors must be taken into account when calculating the speed of rotation.

For example, days on volatile compound planets are calculated based on the rotational speed of the planet's core.

which does not always match the rotational speed of the surrounding gas. currently, NASA experts assume that a day on Saturn lasts about 10.2 hours. This means that the duration of a day on Saturn is not even half the time it takes to spend a day on earth.

Saturn-Hexagon:

As early as the early 1980s, when the Voyager Probes were collecting the first information about Saturn, scientists were confronted with a phenomenon that could not be explained for a long time. Research on NASA

Credit to NASA/JPL-Caltech

According to the findings, a strange structure was detected at the north pole of the ringed planet which in its shape resembled an almost perfect hexagon. The assumption that this unusual structure was a gigantic storm could be proven by the data from the Cassini mission.

The background of this unusual shape is still being investigated in detail, and initial indications suggest that the hexagonal structure could have its origin in the unique composition of Saturn’s clouds and an interplay of extremely flat storm winds.

New Information About Saturn’s Rings:

As we have already told you, Saturn’s rings are a complex network of countless individual orbits. This information was not new to the scientists in the run-up to the Cassini-Huygens mission.

All the more astonishing, however, were the insights that Cassini provided into the structural movement patterns of the ring's orbits. Research on NASA

Credit to NASA/JPL-Caltech

The truth is that the rings, which initially appear to be static objects, are not immobile structures but rather a collection of countless particles of rock and ice that are in constant motion. The structure of the individual ring tracks changes incredibly fast. The data on individual Saturn rings collected by the Voyager probes was no longer up to date.

Some 25 years later, during the Cassini flight, the orbit is known as the "f ring" no longer exhibited any of the features previously detected by the Voyager probes.

The Two Faces of Lapetus:

As mentioned above, Cassini not only devoted itself to Saturn itself during its mission but also took a look at some of the surrounding moons. One of the moons that have always puzzled experts is Lapetus. Research on NASA

This natural satellite of the ringed planet, which was named after a Titan of Greek mythology, has long been astounding with its two-tone surface.

Credit to NASA/JPL-Caltech

Why one side of the moon always appears bright and the other is adorned with dark spots has not been satisfactorily explained by experts for a long time.

The recordings made in the course of the Cassini space mission were able to help to better understand the phenomenon. Currently, experts believe that the different coloration of Lapetus is due to its spatial location.

According to this, the moon is constantly moving through parts of Saturn's f-ring, which means that one side of Lapetus is always obscured by the dense particles of its gigantic orbit. This effect occurs because the individual components of the ring absorb more sunlight than the lunar surface.

Did you enjoy our trip to Saturn? Are you as interested in the ring planet as we are? Were you particularly surprised to discover the Cassini mission? Leave us your opinion on this topic in the comments.