New Views of Saturn With Highlights From the Cassini Mission

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New Views of SaturnWith Highlights From the
Cassini Mission
George B. Trammell Fan Mtn. Public Night 13 April
2007
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Some Saturn Facts...

• 2nd largest gas giant in our Solar System

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Some Saturn Facts...

• 2nd largest gas giant in our Solar System
• almost 10 times farther away from the Sun

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Some Saturn Facts...

• 2nd largest gas giant in our Solar System
• almost 10x farther away from the Sun
• other properties
• mass 94 Earth masses
• radius 9.5 Earth radii
• average density lt water
• rotates once every 11 hours

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Some Saturn Facts...

• made of mostly Hydrogen Helium

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Some Saturn Facts...

• made of mostly Hydrogen Helium
• spectacular ring system

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Some Saturn Facts...

• made of mostly Hydrogen Helium
• spectacular ring system
• Galileo (1610) first to report discovery
• Cassini (1675) entire system of rings with gaps
  in between

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Some Saturn Facts...

• Saturn has weather on its surface

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Some Saturn Facts...

• Saturn has weather on its surface
• Saturn has aurora

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Why Study Saturn?

• formation of Solar System's most complex ring
  system still a mystery

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Why Study Saturn?

• formation of Solar System's most complex ring
  system still a mystery
• need long-term observations of cloud features and
  deep atmosphere
• need more data to learn more about its formation
  and evolution
• moons contain interesting features (i.e., active
  geysers, atmospheres)

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Past Missions to Saturn

• Voyager spacecraft (1980)

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The Cassini Mission

• NASA launch in October 1997 sent Cassini
  spacecraft on 7 year trip to Saturn

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The Cassini Mission

• NASA launch in October 1997 sent Cassini
  spacecraft on 7 year trip to Saturn
• entered orbit on July 1st 2004
• carried the Huygens probe that descended into
  Titan's atmosphere

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Some Discoveries So Far

• active geysers on Enceladus found by UVA
  astronomer Anne Verbiscer
• icy particles crashing into other nearby moons at
  over 20,000 mph!
• shed particles actually maintain ring
• 4 moons (Mimas, Tethys, Dione, Rhea) being
  sandblasted Enceladus

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More Discoveries

• Cassini's Infrared camera can see deeper into
  Saturn's atmosphere, revealing even more
  turbulent structure
• lightning storms 10,000x more powerful than those
  on Earth!
• deep thunderstorms with some clouds larger than
  the Earth!
• cloud patterns different than seen by Voyager
• aurora can persist for days!

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Saturn Is One Cool Planet!

• gorgeous ring system
• at least 30 moons, some with atmospheres
• displays aurora
• Cassini sending more data/images everyday
• up tonight (near Regulus in Leo)

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Thanks for your attention!Questions are
welcome!Enjoy the rest of your visit!