Introduction: With its majestic rings and dozens of moons, Saturn is the most beautiful planet in our solar system. The sixth planet from the sun and slightly smaller than Jupiter, Saturn formed four billion years ago. It is made up mainly of hydrogen and helium gases. However, it is twice as far from Earth as Jupiter. From Saturn, the Sun appears about 10 times smaller than how we see it from Earth.
Density: It is also the only known planet that is less dense than water, meaning that if it could be placed inside an imaginary vast water body it would float. Saturn has a huge magnetosphere and a stormy environment, with winds clocked at 1,800 kilometres per hour near its equator.
Unique Moon: Titan is the largest of the 31 known moons orbiting Saturn. It is of special interest to scientists because it is the only moon in the solar system possessing its own atmosphere.
Lord of the Rings: Its wonderful rings set Saturn apart from other planets in the solar system. Made up by billions of ice and rock particles of varying sizes, these rings orbit Saturn at different speeds. There are hundreds of these rings, believed to be pieces of shattered comets, asteroids or moons that broke apart before they reached the planet. The rings are so big that they would cover most of the distance between Earth and the Moon.
Enigmatic Look: For ages, Saturn and its rings baffled observers. Italian astronomer Galileo was the first to use a telescope to explore the celestial mysteries. Galileo couldn't figure out why Saturn appeared different in the night sky at different times — a feature that we now know is caused by the shifting of our view of the ring plane. Because of this, when the rings face Earth edge-on they are almost invisible. They seem to reappear months later when our angle of view changes.
{{/usCountry}}Enigmatic Look: For ages, Saturn and its rings baffled observers. Italian astronomer Galileo was the first to use a telescope to explore the celestial mysteries. Galileo couldn't figure out why Saturn appeared different in the night sky at different times — a feature that we now know is caused by the shifting of our view of the ring plane. Because of this, when the rings face Earth edge-on they are almost invisible. They seem to reappear months later when our angle of view changes.
{{/usCountry}}The Mission: Launched from Kennedy Space Center on October 15, 1997, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft will reached the Saturnian region in July 2004. The mission is composed of two elements: The Cassini spacecraft 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. The sophisticated instruments onboard these spacecraft will provide scientists with crucial data to help understand more about Saturn.
Cassini-Huygens: 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.