A Stellar Swan Song
Cassini is locked in a death dance with Saturn, yet it's revolutionizing our knowledge of not just the ringed planet, but moons like Titan, which, since the deployment of the Huygens lander, hints at what Earth may have been like very early in its primordial life.
The nuclear-powered spacecraft's four-year foray in Saturnian orbit began in 2004, and filled our screens with the majesty of Saturn's clouds and signature rings. It also studied the moons Enceladus, a frozen body striated with fractures and crevasses, and Titan, the planet-size hazy moon whose liquid methane rivers and sea astounded scientists. Enceladus' icy surface masks what many suspect to be a subsurface ocean, bustling with microbial life much the same as we suspect of Jupiter's moon Europa.
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As one of NASA's flagship missions (high-end explorations of the planets), the "Grand Finale" for the $3.26-billion, 20-year mission, will end in a spectacular display, disintegrating into Saturn's atmosphere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrGAQCq9BMU
By discovering conditions for life on Saturn's moons, Cassini made its death dive a moral necessity for NASA. The irony of flagship missions like Cassini and Galileo is that their destruction is precisely because they exceeded our expectations.
Let's take a look at Cassini's last days:
Reagan then reassured that the space program would continue to operate and “what happened today does nothing to diminish it”. This message sought to protect the ongoing space programs and was dedicated to the last sub-audience of his speech: the NASA people. He acknowledged their hard work and expressed sympathy for their loss of friends and coworkers.
Until space industry can devise a transportation system faster than light-speed, humanity has no hope of ever exploring this planet. On more auspicious terms for discovering a habitable world, one does not need to look farther than our own solar system. Cassini, an orbiter of Saturn, discovered that one of its moons, dubbed as Enceladus, has liquid water beneath its icy crust. Furthermore, a rocky core at the bottom of the ocean confirms that the liquid water may have the essential minerals and nutrients to provide microbial organisms with a sustainable food
"Give me a challenge and I'll meet it with joy.” Ronald Reagan described the five astronauts and two payload specialists who died in the Challenger explosion, about six hours after the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds into its launch. Ronald Reagan’s Address to the Nation would be broadcasted on television and radio nationwide. In this speech, Reagan tells us that this is a day to remember and mourn the loss of the brave challenger crew. Reagan argues that we are pioneers on space travel, and while this is a tragic loss, we must continue to expand our knowledge of space and keep exploring the “Final Frontier.”
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has had as a strategy the development of space exploration. All missions from the most historical to those planned, have been directed under the same institution to enrich the scientific knowledge of the Earth, the solar system and the universe. However, the goals, the accomplishments and errors committed throughout the history of the space, technological advances and experiences in each of the missions, have been making the differences. The Apollo mission is an example of the first attempts to landing on the moon, and the planned Mars mission is an example for traveling to the Red Planet; both were created through NASA, but their goals, historical epoch
These same atoms also created aliens on the planet Saturn. This paper will define Saturn's temperature, light, the distance from earth, and how the alien manage to live on the planet. Due to Earth’s proximity to the sun, the temperature varies widely from the pole to the equator, but in Saturn’s case it’s different because the sun appears in the sky as a bright star. Saturn has one of the coldest temperatures of the planets in the solar system. It has an average
Enceledus is the sixth-largest moon of Saturn which discovered by William Herdchel in 1789. Three spacecrafts contributed the main discovery of the Enceledus. Voyager I spacecraft found that Enceledus has a high albedo and is orbiting inside the E ring of the Saturn at the highest density point whereas Voyager II spacecraft observed that there are at least 5 type of terrain on the surface such as crater terrain, young terrain and so on. Cassina spacecraft discovered water-rich plumes venting from the south polar region which approved that the Enceledus is the source of the E ring and is able to create life. In addition the environment on Enceledus is perfect fits in all the chemical requirements for life existence.
Our lab assignment this week was to research the Cassini/Huygens mission currently being conducted by NASA and the European Space Agency. After learning about the mission, we need to list some of the information it has provided us. As well as discuss what we have learned about Saturn, its rings and the moon system. Choose at least one picture and explain it. Although, Saturn has always been my favorite planet, I didn’t know much about this mission. The lab proved fun and interesting to learn about all the many discoveries of Saturn.
Saturn’s presence has been known for thousands of years. It’s able to be seen by the naked eye with the correct equipment. Saturn has a radius of 36,184 miles. It is 890.7 million miles away from the sun. A day on Saturn lasts ten hours and forty two minutes. It’s orbital period takes twenty nine years. Saturn is made up of 96% Hydrogen, 3% Helium, and 1% of other elements including methane, ammonia, ethane, and hydrogen deuteride. (Coffey Universe Today) The state of the gases change with pressure and temperature. Therefore, there are more than just gas states found on the planet. There are liquid and molten states. Saturn is the least dense planet in the solar system, and also the flattest. It’s
The Voyager satellites were launched in 1977, Voyager I mission was to study Jupiter and Saturn, and Voyager II, Uranus and Neptune. The mission brought back stunning evidence that the people behind the mission didn’t anticipate for. Io, for example, was the discovered to have massive geological activity (the only other orbiting object besides Earth). The Voyager’s recorded nine eruptions during their brief orbit (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, News and Archives). In Carl Sagan’s show, Cosmos, he mentions that Voyager captured lightning on the dark side of Jupiter (Sagan Ep. 1). This is just one example of many scientific break throughs that the Voyagers have documented. Even up to 2012, mission control is still receiving signals from the Voyager satellites, as of August 25th, 2012, Voyager I surpassed the heliopause of the solar system (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, News and Archives).
Saturn: a gas giant whose mass almost holds 100 earths. Ever since ancient times Saturn has efficiently mesmerized humankind. Recently there has been many observations of this fascinating planet. From the moons to the rings to the specs of dust- we are at awe. Some of the most intriguing parts of Saturn are the following: Enceladus’ Plumes, Titan’s Lakes, and Saturn’s Hexagon. Know there must be a question you must be pondering about. Which one of these three would bring the best yield to the process of scientific discovery? The answer: Saturn’s Hexagon.
The discovery of water in the Orion Nebula will undoubtedly provide the basis for further study. More specifically, it will prompt scientists to search for water in other regions of space at different stages of star formation. Then, if water is present in each, it may suggest that "the oceans of Earth are older than even the planet that now contains them." 7
Space has always been an unknown to the humanity, and therefore humanity has in insatiable desire to know as much as possible about the area beyond the Earth's atmosphere. Exploring space can lead to many new and exciting discoveries such as (see hubble, planets, kepler, moon rocks etc). When the United States first entered the realm of space in the [1960s], NASA had much funding. However, the motivation of this funding was not for science – it was political, as the government was determined to beat Russia in the Cold War Space Race. Today, as there is no political motivator as great as the Cold War, NASA is faced with a lack of funding and must make hard decisions. They must decide between the adventure and excitement of sending manned missions
Enceladus is proved to hold a vast ocean beneath its cracked, icy surface. Geysers shoot from the depths of this blue moon. Enceladus also exhibits "tiger stripes" on the surface. These stripes have been identified as spewing ice, and further prove the existence of water on this moon. One of NASA's long-term missions has been to find a celestial body containing water. "... scientists are eagerly searching for liquid water in places other than Earth. If found, these places would be the most compelling locations to seek an answer to the question of whether life exists beyond our home planet..." says the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Through 2015, they have done a few different flybys of Enceladus. One of the flybys will feature a plume dive that will sniff for hydrogen gas; a good source of nutrition for bacteria. Finding hydrogen could be a beacon towards finding hot spring activity, then towards finding the habitability of
Saturn, along with the other gas giants’ rings are made up of mostly ice and large pieces of rock surrounded by an icy coating. Saturn’s ring system contains billions of ring particles that range in size from dust - size, icy grains to few even as large as mountains. Two of Saturn's tiny moons orbit in the gaps of Saturn's rings. The gaps they orbit inside of are known as Encke and Keeler gaps. These two moons make up the total of fifty - three moons that NASA has discovered and
Saturn is one of the most interesting planets in the solar system. It is the sixth planet in the solar system, and is most famous for its stunning array of rings. It is a very easy planet to pick out in the sky because it is one of the brightest lights in the shy. It also has a very faint greenish color that makes it stand out from the rest of the objects in the sky (“Astronomy for Kids”). Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter being the only planet that is bigger. It also has at least eighteen moons, more than any other planet in the solar system. There have been three voyages to this extraordinary planet, and one is still in process today. The Pioneer II traveled to Saturn in September of 1979,