Cassini

Cassini launched into space on October 15th, 1997 and has now completed its mission. Its primary destination was Saturn, which it arrived at on July 1st, 2004 . Wherever Cassini goes, it carries its trusty cameras, cosmic dust analyzer, magnetometer, magnetosphere sensors, radar, radio-signal generator, radio-signal sensor, spectrometers, and ultraviolet telescopes. Cassini often chats with humans from NASA / JPL, ESA, and ASI.

Cassini is a space probe orbiting Saturn, gaining unprecedented views and crucial information about the planet, its rings and its many moons. The Cassini orbiter was launched carrying the Huygens lander which landed successfully on Saturn’s moon, Titan, in 2005. Huygens sent back 350 images of Titan from its descent and landing. One of Cassini’s largest discoveries to date is the existence of icy plumes spurting out into space from Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Subsequently, Cassini confirmed that Enceladus harbors a large subsurface ocean. Other notable discoveries include the finding of seven new Saturn moons and liquid lakes of methane and ethane on Titan.

Worth Exploring:

footage from the Cassini orbiter set to the music of Nine Inch Nails
the view of Titan from five different altitudes as the Huygens probe plummeted to the surface
the natural color and appearance of Saturn to human eyes
sounds collected from Titan by the Huygens probe

(top image: natural color image of Titan and Saturn by Cassini, NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)