What Shocking images did cassini reveal on Saturn?
On October 15, 1997, a two-stage Titan IVB/Centaur
rocket was launched from cape Canaveral station, which carried on board one of the most important
space exploration projects in history.
The Cassini-Huygens space probe, this would take care studying Saturn's planet and reveals
incredible mysteries about this huge gaseous body and its natural satellites.
The Cassini-Huygens mission resulted from a collaboration between three space agencies
and the contribution of twenty-seven countries for to development.
NASA/JPL built the Cassini orbiter.
The Huygens probe was built by the European Space Agency (ESA), while the Italian Space
Agency was tasked with providing Cassini's high-gain communication antenna.
The Cassini-Huygens mission was so named because it was divided into two stages, on the one
hand, the Cassini space exploration probe, which would be responsible for orbiting the
planets to collect information from various bodies, and on the other hand, the Huygens
landing probe, which had the objective of landing on one of Saturn's moons to study
its surface.
A long journey Cassini had the mission of studying mainly
the planet Saturn.
For this, it was necessary to travel a long way that had to be overcome in record time.
To reach its destination, the Cassini spacecraft used the flyby of planets to increase its
speed and take the final direction towards Saturn.
In total, the Cassini spacecraft made four flybys, two to Venus, one to Earth one to
Jupiter.
During all that time, from launch to several months after flying over our planet, the spacecraft
remained oriented with its primary antenna towards the Sun; in this way, the probe was
positioned to protect the instruments from heat since, in its second flyby of Venus,
the spacecraft approached 90 million kilometers near our star.
Fifty-five days after the second flyby of Venus, on August 18, the spacecraft returned
to Eart it about 1,000 kilometers away with a speed of 19 km/s (68,000 km/h !!!); this
time, nine instruments from the probe were activated to make some observations of the
Earth-Lun system and take incredible photographs of our planet and our natural satellite.
(NASA.gov, s.f.)
Finally, the expected encounter with Jupiter occurred more than 9.7 million kilometers
away from the planet.
Despite such a distant distance, the spacecraft obtained precious data on Jupiter's atmosphere
and other data from the magnetosphere that were of great importance in understanding
the influence of Jupiter's magnetic field throughout the solar system.
One of the most significant discoveries during the Cassini space probe's journey was that
radio waves sent from Earth to Cassini were deflected by the sun's gravitational field,
distorting the time it took for the signals to arrive.
This measurement of the time change of the signals due to the movement of the Earth and
the ship, as well as the action of the gravitational field of the sun, They were helpful in verifying
the theory of relativity of Albert Einstein, who years ago had predicted this behavior
due to the presence of strong gravitational fields.
Arrival in Saturn The Cassini probe reached its destination
in June 2004 and captured incredible images of the planet Saturn, its unique rings, and
its mysterious satellites.
During his first days orbiting Saturn, Cassini discovered two new satellites that had never
been seen before: Metone and Palene, which lie between the orbits of Mimas and Enceladus.
Neither of the two natural satellites has a spherical shape.
That is, they have irregular shapes because Metone and Palene are small satellites and
their gravitational force is not so great as to give them a spherical shape.
Later on June 11, 2004, Cassini flew over the moon Phoebe (Phoebe), where he managed
to corroborate what many scientists believed, and that is that this natural satellite is
the only one that orbits Saturn in the opposite direction to the rest of the satellites, in
addition to the photographs taken by Cassini show that this moon could have water under
its surface.
(NASA.gov, s.f.)
On July 1, 2004, Cassini became the first instrument created by humanity to orbit Saturn,
taking the first high-quality images of this gas giant, thanks to this, we could see this
beautiful planet with its enigmatic rings as we had never seen it before.
The quality of the images Cassini took was so good that, thanks to the photographs, we
discovered another ring on Saturn that was impossible to see with conventional telescopes.
Titan, The twin of the earth?
A day after arriving at Saturn, Cassini managed to get close to the Titan satellite, the largest
on this planet.
Images taken from the probe showed that Titan's surface looked like Earth's in its early era,
as it was arid and with smooth stones throughout the landscape.
Titan is the only satellite with a significant atmosphere and the only object other than
Earth on which clear evidence of stable liquid bodies has been found on the surface.
On December 25, 2005, the Huygens landing probe separated from the Cassini exploration
probe to study Titan from within.
On January 14, 2005, Huygens managed to land uncomplicated on the surface of Titan discovering
something incredible.
Before we could send probes to explore the planets of the solar system, the only way
we had to see them was with telescopes, but this had many limitations, especially in those
bodies that had very dense and opaque atmospheres that prevented us from seeing their surface
like Venus, and of course, Titan.
The landing of the Huygens probe on Titan helped us discover that this satellite is
composed mainly of ice and rocky material and contains lakes of liquid hydrocarbons
in the polar regions.
(National Air And Space Museum, s.f.)
Titan's surface is geologically young.
Despite the mountains and discovering several possible Cryovolcanoes, its surface is smooth
with few impact craters, indicating high erosion activity covering the young craters.
According to data from the Huygens probe, Titan's atmosphere could be composed mainly
of nitrogen, but up to 6% can be methane and complex hydrocarbon compounds.
The climate, including wind and rain, creates Land-like landforms such as dunes, rivers,
lakes, and seas (probably of liquid methane and ethane) and is dominated by seasonal weather
patterns as on Earth.
With its liquids (both surface and underground) and robust nitrogen atmosphere, Titan's methane
cycle closely resembles Earth's water cycle, albeit at a much lower temperature.
(Nasa Science Titan, s.f.)
Knowing this about this satellite, could it be that on Titan, there were living beings
that have adapted to the conditions of this climate?
We do not know, and that is precisely why a project is currently underway by NASA to
bring a probe to Titan, called Dragonfly, which will move through the satellite flying
in a drone.
Sadly due to the pandemic, the launch initially scheduled for 2024 will be delayed three years
until 2027.
Enceladus, another candidate to host life In 2005 Cassini continued to explore Saturn's
moons, and upon encountering the moon, Enceladus discovered that it had a weak electromagnetic
field and a significant atmosphere with vast layers of ice.
It was also possible to observe geysers that released jets of ice particles and water vapor,
possibly from an ocean miles deep.
Thanks to images taken by the Cassini probe, we now know that cryovolcanoes near Enceladus'
south pole eject large amounts of ice into space in the form of geysers and jets of water
vapor, other volatile substances, and solid material that included sodium chloride crystals
and ice particles.
According to observations, Enceladus geysers have an ejection rate of up to two hundred
kilograms per second.
To date, more than a hundred geysers have been identified in Cassini images, and scientists
concluded that some of the geysers' water vapor falls back in the form of snow on the
satellite's surface, covering the impact craters, and the rest escapes and supplies most of
the material that makes up one of Saturn's rings.
(NASA Science, 2017) In 2014, NASA reported that it had found evidence
of the presence of a large subsurface ocean of water at the south pole about ten kilometers
thick; this means that there is a possibility that under the kilometers of ice of Enceladus,
there are aquatic living beings.
Giant Spots and Hexagonal Storms During its flyby of Saturn on October 25,
2012, the Cassini probe managed to observe the vast large White Spot of Saturn; it is
a unique meteorological phenomenon in the Solar System; it consists of a storm that
reaches practically the size of the Earth and is repeated every 30 years.
Saturn also possesses one of the most robust storm systems.
In 2013 Cassini managed to record a video in high definition of the mysterious hexagonal
system of Saturn's north pole, leaving us with one of the most enigmatic images of the
solar system.
Today it is thought that the hexagon of Saturn is formed because, in those areas, there is
a high latitudinal gradient in the speed of atmospheric winds; therefore, although it
is located at the pole, it rotates as fast as if it were at the equator of the planet.
Cassini's Grand Finale In 2017 the Cassini probe had already exhausted
almost all its fuel, and each time its instruments were gradually shutting down.
Hence, NASA engineers had to make an important decision, leaving the spacecraft adrift in
the hope of recovering it in the future or destroying it.
The discoveries Cassini had made indicated that Saturn's satellites were very promising,
and some of them could harbor life.
If they left it adrift, there was a possibility that sooner or later, the probe would crash
into one of the moons.
Eventually, we would contaminate that place, compromising the chances of finding living
beings.
So finally, it was decided to destroy the ship most safely, causing it to crash into
Saturn.
Remember that Saturn is a gas giant; because of this, when Cassini enters the atmosphere
it will destroy itself, reducing to dust it to dust due to the high friction with the
clouds of the planet.
(NASA Science, 2017) So, in April 2017, after nearly 20 years of
incredible research and photography, Cassini began its last journey, making 22 dives through
the space between Saturn and its rings.
Finally, on September 15, 2017, when Cassini made its last orbit around the planet, it
plunged into the dense clouds of Saturn, slowly disintegrating in its atmosphere, this being
its great end.
Despite this tragic end, during its last seconds of life, the Cassini probe sent us fundamental
data about Saturn's clouds that today have helped us better understand how that planet
formed.
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