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- 2042 - - Cassini studied Saturn’s moons and there are many, 62 moon counted. Saturn generates a magnetic field from deep in its interior. The heat convection and the rotation create a flowing electric current. One of the highlights was the spacecraft imaged water jets shooting up from the moon Enceladus. - April, 2018 , mornings bring Mars and Saturn close together in the south eastern sky. Check it out :
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-------------------------- 2042 - Saturn and her moons
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- The first of April , 2018, you can see Saturn and Mars together in the south east sky. They are just 1.4 degrees separation. Sagittarius is the constellation in the background. Mars shines at 0.3 magnitude and Saturn at 0.2 magnitude. Saturn is 936,000,000 miles from the Sun.
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- Cassini left Cape Canaveral 20 years ago. The past 13 years gathering data before entering the Saturn atmosphere. After 1.5 hours burning up in the atmosphere the mission is successfully ended.
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- Cassini collected data using 12 instruments attached to the space craft. The entire spacecraft had to be rotated to point specific instruments to a specific target. Cassini studied Saturn’s moons and there are many, 62 moon counted. Saturn has 11 smaller inner moons. Outer moons include:
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--------------------------------------------------- kilometer radius ------- mile radius
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-------------------- Mimas -------------------------. 199 ---------------------- 124
----------------------Enceladus. ----------------------249 ---------------------- 155
----------------------Tethys.-------------------------- 530 ---------------------- 329
----------------------Dione.--------------------------- 539 ---------------------- 335
----------------------Rhea. ----------------------------764 ---------------------- 475
----------------------Hyperion. -----------------------140 ---------------------- 87
----------------------Titan.-------------------------- 2,575 ---------------------- 1600
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- . On Titan Cassini found seas of hydrocarbons with a complex surface environment. The seas were liquid methane at -180 C.
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- Passing Enceladus saw a moon with 100 geysers spouting from an underground ocean of liquid water. The water was heated by the gravitational tidal forces of Saturn. Enceladus is 10% the size of Titan. The salty ocean discovered below its surface contains enormous amounts of water. Maybe even microbial life.
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- Iapetus, an inner moon had one hemisphere that was snow-white and the other dark black. This was a thermal process caused by slowly rotating Iapetus. The hot side would sublimate ice. The ice would re-accumulate on the cold white side.
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- Prometheus is an inner moon that is 53 miles diameter. Mimas another inner moon creates the broadest gap in the rings. The rings contain density waves that show up in variations in brightness and thickness. In order to study the rings more closely Cassini’s final mission was to fly between the rings and the upper atmosphere 22 times. Prior to this Cassini always stayed outside the rings to protect it from damage
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- The Great White Spot on the surface created a thunderstorm of lightning strokes. These were detected with high frequency radio emissions. The lightning was created by convective competition between water rich clouds and lighter weight hydrogen and helium atmosphere. The heavier wet clouds can not rise until the upper clouds become denser and sink.
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- Saturn generates a magnetic field from deep in its interior. The heat convection and the rotation create a flowing electric current. This in turn creates a magnetic field.
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- Determining the Saturn day was a real challenge. The atmosphere is not solid and different layers rotate at different speeds. Trying to use the rotating magnetic field was difficult because the rotating axis and the magnetic axis were tilted less than 0.06 degrees. With no solid surface beneath, no friction to dissipate atmospheric motions. Once started they endure. The hexagon jet stream over the north pole is an example.
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- Another challenge was to measure the planet’s gravity. The technique was to measure the slight change in radio frequency as the satellite orbited. The tiny frequency changes would map the distribution of mass within the planet.
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- Voyagers were launched in 1977. They arrived in 1980. Both were slingshot past the planet. They were traveling 9 miles per second. ( 32,000 miles per hour). Passing by Saturn’s rings they were measured to be only 33 and 656 feet thick.
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- Cassini launched in 1997 arrived in 2004. One of the highlights of the mission was in 2010 erupted a colossal storm. Lasting 270 days it produce a thundering and lightning behemoth that spread entirely around the planet.
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- April, 2018 , mornings bring Mars and Saturn close together in the south eastern sky. Check it out :
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- HERE ARE SOME OTHER REVIEWS YOU CAN REQUEST:
- 2025. - Huygens lands on Titan, a moon of Saturn that is bigger than the planet Mercury. Huygens landed safely on the surface and transmitted back to us for 72 minutes.
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- 2023 - Saturn and her many moons. Even moons with underground oceans. Saturn is
91/2 times the size of Earth. And 91/2 times the distance from the Sun. The plumes of Enceladus are 98% water vapor. Seven more Reviews are also listed in appendix.
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- 1992 - Covers Titan and Saturn mission accomplishments. With its rings it is 300,000 miles diameter.
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- 1764 - Saturn is 10 times bigger than Earth with a diameter at 74,900 miles It is like a mini soar system.
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- 1570. - Over 300,000 close up pictures were taken from our satellite sending over 450 gigabytes of data.
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- 1842. - Another gaseous planet like Saturn has been discovered but it is 200 times bigger.
- 1342 - Saturn’s hexagon at the North Pole.
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- 1271 - There is a thunderstorm on. Saturn.
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- 1252 - Discoveries when Cassini visits Saturn, written March 2011.
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- 661 - Saturn, Cassini, and Huygens written July, 2006.
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------------------------- Thursday, March 29, 2018 --------------------------------
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