My name is Cassini. I am the space probe to Saturn.
Ask me a question.
With its stunning rings and dozen of moons, Saturn is an intriguing planet for many reasons. Barely smaller than Jupiter, it formed four billion years ago and it is made mainly of gas.
Of the 31 known moons orbiting Saturn, Titan is the largest. Bigger than the planet Mercury and our own moon, Titan is of particular interest to scientists because it is the only moon in the solar system with its own atmosphere.
But what sets Saturn apart from the rest of the planets in the solar system are its picturesque rings. Made up by billions of ice and rock particles of all sizes -- from small debris to boulders as big as houses -- these rings orbit Saturn at varying speeds.
Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was the first to use a telescope to explore the heavens. Galileo observed that Saturn looked different at various times. When the rings face Earth edge-on, they are virtually invisible. They reappear months later when our angle of view changes.
The mission is composed of two elements: The Cassini orbiter that will orbit Saturn and its moons for four years, and the Huygens probe that will dive into the murky atmosphere of Titan and land on its surface.
Cassini-Huygens is an international collaboration between three space agencies. Seventeen nations contributed to building the spacecraft. The Cassini orbiter was built and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Huygens probe was built by the European Space Agency. The Italian Space agency provided Cassini's high-gain communication antenna. More than 250 scientists worldwide will study the data collected.
The Cassini spacecraft is loaded with an array of sophisticated instruments and cameras, to deliver valuable data from the mission to scientists around the world.
During the Saturn Tour, Cassini will complete 74 orbits of the ringed planet, 44 close flybys of the mysterious moon Titan, and numerous flybys of Saturn's other icy moons.
The Titan launch vehicle carrying the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was launched on the morning of 15th of October 1997.
Perfectly on schedule, at 4:43 a.m. EDT, the 5,650-kilogram (6-ton) spacecraft began its vertical ascent.
I do not know. Please ask something else.
Goodbye
saturn $=1 titan $=2 moon $=2 rings $=3 Galileo $=4 Mission $=5 cassini $=5 JPL $=6 Nassa $=6 instruments$=7 orbit $=8 launch $=9 goodbye $=10 think $=11