Surprises in the Saturn System: Cassini Mission Highlights

Plunging into Saturn’s atmosphere at 74,000 mph the Cassini mission ended in a blaze of glory on September 15, 2017, after collecting groundbreaking new science where no spacecraft had flown before. Cassini’s Grand Finale capped a 13-year mission of discovery that revolutionized our understanding of Saturn, its complex rings, the amazing assortment of moons and the planet’s dynamic magnetic environment.The robotic spacecraft arrived in 2004 after a 7-year flight from Earth, dropped a parachuted probe named Huygens to study the atmosphere and surface of Saturn’s big moon Titan, and commenced making astonishing discoveries until the mission ended with a fiery plunge into Saturn’s atmosphere. Key discoveries include icy jets shooting from the tiny moon Enceladus from a liquid water ocean beneath its icy crust, and lakes of liquid hydrocarbons and methane rain and on Saturn’s giant moon Titan. Cassini’s findings are rewriting the books on the Saturn system, and have fundamentally altered many of our concepts of where life might be found in our own solar system and beyond. This presentation highlights the Cassini mission’s most intriguing discoveries.