Cassini swings past giant moon
The Cassini spacecraft has made a close pass of Saturn's giant moon Titan which is expected to result in the closest views yet of the mysterious satellite.
At 1744 BST on Tuesday, the probe made its closest approach to Titan, passing within 1,200km (746 miles) of the moon.

Attempts to view Titan's icy surface have so far been frustrated by a thick, orange haze that shrouds the moon.

But Tuesday's pass should be close enough for Cassini's instruments to penetrate the satellite's dense smog.


Later this year, the piggybacked Huygens probe will be released from Cassini and enter Titan's atmosphere.
It will transmit data during its parachute-assisted descent, and carry out science tasks on the surface - if it survives.

But this week's visit could answer some key questions about this unexplored world. In particular, it could help settle a vigorous debate about the nature of Titan's freezing surface, which some scientists think might harbour oceans of liquid methane and ethane.


Whole new world

In order to settle this debate, Cassini is using its cameras, an instrument called the Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (Vims) and its imaging radar to penetrate the moon's thick haze.

The probe's cameras are taking high-resolution images of Titan, helping to map Huygens' landing site. Cameras have also been taking photos every 15 minutes on the approach. These will be compiled into a movie to show cloud movements in Titan's atmosphere.

Vims will investigate atmospheric phenomena and geological features on Titan while Cassini's imaging radar, which has never been used to gather data about Titan, will build up topographical maps.

These instruments should help reveal whether Huygens will touch down on a sea or river of liquid hydrocarbon, on organic sludge, or on solid ice.
In addition to this, mass spectrometers will analyse the composition of Titan's atmosphere during the pass in order to investigate the chemistry that goes on within it.

"Cassini will see Titan as it has never been seen before. We expect the onboard instruments will pierce the moon's dense atmosphere and reveal a whole new world," said Dr Charles Elachi, director of the US space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

Conditions on Titan are thought to be very similar to those on the primordial Earth. Temperatures rarely venture above -179C (-290F) and the atmosphere is dominated by nitrogen and carbon-based compounds.

So mission scientists think the moon might have something to teach us about the conditions that were necessary for the origin of life on our planet.

"What we've got is a very primitive atmosphere that has been preserved for 4.6 billion years. Titan gives us the chance for cosmic time travel," said Toby Owens, principal scientist at JPL in Pasadena, California.

The spacecraft's antenna will be pointing away from Earth during the flyby, so at least nine hours are likely to elapse before the first pictures of the moon are transmitted.

With a diameter of 5150km (3,200 miles), Titan is a giant among planetary satellites. It is also the only known moon with an appreciable atmosphere.

Cassini's flyby - one of 45 planned for its tour of Saturn - is expected to give a taster of what Huygens can expect when it enters the Titan's atmosphere.

Professor John Zarnecki of the Open University in Milton Keynes, and lead investigator for Huygens' surface science package, says he hopes the probe will be the first to carry out extra-terrestrial oceanography.

Cassini entered into orbit around Saturn in July, on its four-year mission to explore the ringed planet and its moons.

It is a cooperative project between Nasa, the European Space Agency (Esa) and the Italian Space Agency



Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/3953187.stm

Cant wait to see what these images reveal, we can learn so much from all our neighnoyrs in this solar sytem, hopefully more and more exploration will occur over the next couple of years!

This is very exciting and I can't wait until we get the pics either