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Mission To Saturn

© Pattie Stechschulte

With its colorful rings and massive size, Saturn has been studied since the 17th century by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. Since that time, scientists have learned that it is a gas planet much like the neighboring planets of Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, which also have rings, but not as brilliant or visible.

The giant planet has an unusual atmosphere that has alternate jets streams of east-west and west-east circulation that can be seen by telescopes by cloud top motion. The speed of the jet streams have been measured at 1,100 miles per hour and they are probably why planet's surface has different color bands going across its girth. Saturn appears to have storm structures similar to Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The actual atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium with small traces of other elements.

Since the 1970s, a few NASA spacecrafts have performed several fly-bys close to Saturn which have revealed some important information about the planet's magnetic field, rings and moons. Also, visible and infrared observations showed thermal patterns among the cloud bands that will need further research.

The Voyager spacecraft discovered hundreds of ringlets within Saturn's major rings that have some small moons. Ring particles are composed mostly of water ice ranging in size from dust to large house. The rings may be the remnants of moons destroyed by tidal interaction with Saturn's gravity or some may be remnants of comets that passed too close. Although the origin of the rings is unknown, scientists hope to uncover clues by studying the planet's history.

Saturn has 7 major ring divisions and at least 30 moons, of which Titan is the largest. It is roughly the size of Mercury and is covered with a thick nitrogen atmosphere that might be similar to the primordial Earth. Scientists want to study the moon further because they believe it is a prime example of a planet still in its early formation period.

In October of 1997, the Cassini/Huygens orbiter/probe was launched for a 4-year mission to study Saturn and Titan. The joint U.S.-European spacecraft is expected to arrive in Saturn's atmosphere in 2004 for a four-year investigation (you can track it's present position). It will first complete a multispectral, orbital surveillance of Saturn, measuring the planet's magnetosphere, atmosphere and rings.

During a flyby of Titan, the Huygens Probe portion of the spacecraft will separate and descend with a parachute system to the surface to study send data back about the atmosphere and surface.

Saturn

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