October 11, 2007

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of its launch from Cape Canaveral, the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn is once again at the center of scientific attention. Its latest discoveries about the ringed planet are a leading topic of conversation among the nearly 1,500 scientists gathered this week at a major astronomy conference in Orlando, Fla.


This picture of the Cassini launch was taken by Ken Sturgill of Marion, Virginia

Cassini rode into space Oct. 15, 1997, atop a U.S. Air Force Titan IVB. Its mission: to orbit and study the Saturnian system for four years and to put the European Space Agency's Huygens Probe in position to parachute down to the frozen surface of Saturn's Earthlike moon Titan. Since entering orbit around Saturn, Cassini's scientific instruments, powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators, have returned immense amounts of new information via NASA's global Deep Space Network to the international team of scientists working on the mission.

Scientists aren't the only ones to benefit from Cassini's voyage of discovery. Since arriving at Saturn three-and-a-half years ago, Cassini's revelations have captured the public imagination. Its spectacular views of Saturn and its realm have graced the covers of magazines around the world. Millions have followed the mission's progress at NASA's web sites http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

"With Cassini, amazing discoveries have almost become routine," says Cassini project scientist Dennis Matson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., where the international mission is managed.

"Orbiting Saturn, Cassini is in the middle of the greatest natural laboratory accessible to us in space," says Matson. "With its rings, dozens of moons and magnetic environment, Saturn is like a mini-solar system, with Saturn as a stand-in for the sun, and the moons and rings like planets in formation. Through Cassini and its instruments, we are making fundamental strides in understanding the physical processes that created and govern this and other solar systems."

Some of the discoveries include ice geysers shooting from Saturn's moon Enceladus and the finding that one of Saturn's rings is created from these ice particles. Recently, scientists found that material from Enceladus is also affecting the rotation of Saturn's magnetic field. And an onboard radar instrument, which sees through clouds, has been unveiling the fascinating world of Titan, the large moon with complex chemistry and lakes of hydrocarbons.

More information about the Cassini mission is available at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.

Media contact: Carolina Martinez 818-354-9382
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Carolina.martinez@jpl.nasa.gov

2007-118

Source: NASA/JPL - Cassini - News Release

October 15, 2007
(Source: CICLOPS/Space Science Institute)

Ten years ago today, NASA's Cassini spacecraft departed planet Earth from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and embarked on a seven-year long, circuitous journey of several billion miles across the solar system to the planet Saturn.


On the Final Frontier

To celebrate this special occasion, the mission's imaging team is releasing today a spate of captivating new images and movies of the ringed planet and some of its most photogenic companions.

Headlining this bounty are two expansive and stunning natural color mosaics of Saturn and its rings. One of these is the view seen by the spacecraft as it looked back towards Saturn from its close encounter with the moon Iapetus last month, and shows the shadow-draped planet surrounded by its rings and many of its major icy moons. Another view peers down onto the planet's swirling blue and gold clouds and its splendid rings from a vantage point high above Saturn's equator.

Along with several other colorful views of the planet, there are dramatic vistas (including one stereo image, or anaglyph) of the cratered faces of a few of the planet's icy moons, a high resolution survey of the main ring system in natural color, colorful glimpses of Titan and an updated black-and-white map of Titan's surface.

Two exciting movies from Cassini also make their debut today. One sequence shows the detailed motions of the F-ring as its shepherd moon Prometheus approaches the ring, draws material from it, and gouges a channel in the dust-sized material remaining there.

But by far the most thrilling offering of all is a breathtaking flyover movie of the awesome 10-kilometer (6-mile) high equatorial ridge on Iapetus, acquired when Cassini was only a few thousand kilometers about the surface.

Imaging team leader Carolyn Porco at CICLOPS in Boulder Colorado said, "To the thousands upon thousands of fellow explorers who have traveled along with us since we departed Earth 10 years ago today, who have followed our adventures across the solar system and into orbit around Saturn and who have since been as awestruck as we have at our findings there, we say, 'Happy Anniversary! It's been a pleasure flying with you.'"

The new images and movies are available at http://ciclops.org, http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team consists of scientists from the U.S., England, France, and Germany. The imaging operations center and team leader (Dr. C. Porco) are based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

Contacts:
Preston Dyches (720) 974-5859
CICLOPS/Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

Source: NASA/JPL - Cassini - News Release