Cassini Spacecraft arriving at Saturn, Studies Rings and Moons

Cassini Spacecraft arriving at Saturn, Studies Rings and Moons



The $3.3 billion, 5,384-pound Cassini spacecraft is at the end of a seven-year voyage to Saturn!

Cassini enters orbit around Saturn on June 30, after it makes a dash through a gap in the shimmering rings.

Today Friday June 11 it passed within 1,240 miles of the outermost moon, Phoebe, at 4:56 p.m. EDT. The tiny moon is just 137 miles across. Saturn, in contrast, is nearly 75,000 miles in diameter.

The joint U.S.-European spacecraft, which also carries a probe to explore the moon Titan, was launched in October 1997. NASA built the plutonium-powered spacecraft; the European Space Agency contributed the Huygens (pronounced Hoy'-genz) probe.

Cassini should spend at least four years orbiting the planet, 76 times in all. Cassini's two cameras could take as many as 500,000 pictures.

Scientists hope study of the Saturn system will provide insight to the solar system's evolution.

The Phoebe flyby is a warmup for what's to come: Mission planners expect Cassini to conduct more than 50 similar flights past other Saturn moons.

Scientists believe Phoebe originated in the outer reaches of the solar system and that it was later flung toward Saturn, which captured it into orbit.

NASA this week released fuzzy images of Phoebe taken by Cassini as it closed in on the moon. The images showed a great deal of contrast that scientists said likely indicated topography such as sunlit peaks and deep shadowy craters.

Cassini's best possible pictures of Phoebe could show features as small as 66 feet across.

On the Net:

Phoebe, Smaller than Colorado

Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn & Titan