Stay put for water eruptions on Enceladus, incredible images from Jupiter and Saturn;
including Saturn s hexagonal north pole, which drastically changed colour. See
a video from the surface of Saturn s moon Titan, which contains hydrocarbon lakes.
Keep watching to witness the largest storm in the solar system and lastly;
Cassini s Grand Finale, which saw the space probe travel into the atmosphere of Saturn,
transmitting data back to Earth until it disintegrated, forever now a part of Saturn.
This, is Cassini.
After NASA and the European Space Agency began collaborating in 1982, a joint mission
to Saturn was drawn up. The objective of the mission was to study the solar system s
second largest planet and its moons up close, all the while beaming important data back to Earth.
This would be carried out by the Cassini orbiter, supplied by NASA, and the Huygens lander,
supplied by the ESA, which would parachute down onto Saturn s largest moon, Titan.
In the early hours of the 15th October 1997, Cassini blasted off from Florida aboard a
mighty Titan IV rocket, beginning a 7-year long journey through the solar system. As
a way to propel Cassini, the spacecraft performed gravitational assisted flybys of Venus, Earth and
Jupiter. These flybys provided the space probe with enough momentum to travel all the way out
to the asteroid belt, and on towards Saturn. En route, Cassini captured a handful of stunning
photos as it performed flybys of the moon, Jupiter, and Jupiter s moons Ganymede
and IO. Among these images, the most detailed colour portrait of Jupiter was produced,
in which the smallest visible features are just 37 miles across. These images allowed researchers to
make major scientific discoveries about Jupiter s faint rings, as well as it s atmospheric
circulation and the so called Giant Red Spot . In the time Cassini had between its planetary
destinations, tests were conducted using radio waves transmitted from the space
probe. Radio scientists measured a frequency shift in these radio transmissions, as some of
the radio waves passed close to the Sun. These findings all but confirmed Albert Einstein s
General Theory of Relativity, as a massive object such as the Sun would cause space-time
to curve. This would consequently cause Cassini s transmitted beam of radio waves to travel farther,
and ultimately shift the frequency. After the 7-year long voyage, Cassini began
to orbit Saturn on the 1st of July 2004, and finally began its primary mission of observing
the mysterious gas giant. With a constant stream of images being sent back to Earth,
researchers could now scour through thousands of pictures and make
important new discoveries. In total, the Cassini mission discovered 7 new moons orbiting Saturn,
and NASA scientists reported the possibility of a new moon forming in Saturn s rings.
A day later, on the 2nd of July, Cassini made its first flyby of Saturn s largest moon,
Titan. The captured images showed the moon to have a global haze, although this could be seen through
with the use of special filters aboard Cassini. By using these filters, lakes of liquid methane
were discovered on Titan, which are similar in appearance to lakes here, back on Earth.
Cassini released the Huygens probe on the 25th of December 2004,
which entered Titan s atmosphere on the 14th of January 2005. After a 2-and-a-half-hour descent,
Huygens landed on solid ground, while Cassini remained in orbit to relay images from the
Huygens lander back to Earth. 350 of these images were received back home, however another 350 were
lost due to a software error failing to turn on one of Cassini s receivers.
Cassini continued onto the next phase of its mission whilst observing another of Saturn s
moons, Enceladus. Water ice geysers were observed erupting from the moon s south pole, which led to
scientists speculating that there may be pockets of liquid water close to the surface of the moon.
On the 12th of March 2008, the spacecraft passed through the plumes extending from the geysers,
and detected water, carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons, making the icy moon one of
the most likely places to find alien life in the solar system, albeit on a bacterial level.
During its orbiting of Saturn, Cassini captured Saturn s rings
in all their glory. Experiments were conducted to determine the structure of the rings,
and after analysis back on Earth, the structure was determined to be mostly made of ice.
Whilst orbiting over Saturn s hexagon North pole, a stationary vortex was discovered at
the centre of the pole. The stunning storm earned the nickname the rose due to its angry, dark red
appearance. The characteristics of the storm are very similar to that of a hurricane. However,
at 5,000 miles across and with winds up to 350 mph, it is nothing like any terrestrial hurricane
ever seen. During the course of Cassini s mission, the pole was observed to be dramatically changing
colour, possibly due to seasonal change and extended exposure to sunlight.
On the 25th of October 2012, Cassini witnessed the aftermath of the massive Great White Spot
Storm that occurs roughly once every 30 years. The event was determined to be the largest known
storm in the solar system, with it even being larger than Jupiter s famous Giant Red Spot.
On the 19th of July 2013, the probe was pointed towards Earth to capture an image of Earth,
Venus, Mars and Saturn. The image has since been coined The day the Earth
smiled , as NASA encouraged the world to go outside, and wave upwards towards Cassini.
After 19 years in space, Cassini received one last daring assignment. A grand finale of dives through
the gaps between Saturn and its rings, culminating in a plunge into Saturn s atmosphere itself. This
would ultimately end in the destruction of Cassini, an option selected to prevent any
biological contamination to the moons of Saturn thought to offer potential habitability.
On the 15th of September 2017, Cassini completed its final orbit of Saturn.
Beginning its gallant descent into the heavens of immense gas giant, Cassini fought to keep its
antenna pointed back towards Earth, transmitting data up until its disintegration. This last encore
allowed for new research calculating the length of a day on Saturn, as well as revealing that
Saturn s rings are a mere 10 to 100 million years old, or roughly the same age as the dinosaurs.
The Cassini mission has left a lasting legacy and is a prime example of the potential of space
exploration. Future civilisations may one day depend on the early pathways created by such
missions, as they have laid a precedent of how to find planets and moons in outer space,
capable of supporting life off of Earth.
Click here to find out more about Titan, as we delve deeper into it
s potential to host extraterrestrial life. Thanks for watching Elderfox. Remember to like,
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