Public Event

As part of the "CASSINI-MAPS" workshop, a public conference will take place

Wednesday, April 18th, 6:30 pm, at the Cité de l'Espace, Vega room

Surprises in the Saturn System:  Cassini Mission Highlights

 Linda Spilker
Cassini Project Scientist / Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The Cassini mission’s findings revolutionized our understanding of Saturn, its complex rings, the amazing assortment of moons and the planet’s dynamic magnetic environment.  The robotic spacecraft arrived in 2004 after a 7-year flight from Earth, dropped a parachuted probe named Huygens to study the atmosphere and surface of Saturn’s big moon Titan, and commenced making astonishing discoveries until the mission ended with a fiery plunge into Saturn’s atmosphere on 15 September 2017.

Key discoveries include icy jets shooting from the tiny moon Enceladus from a liquid water ocean beneath its icy crust, and lakes of liquid hydrocarbons and methane rain and on Saturn’s giant moon Titan.  These Cassini findings have fundamentally altered many of our concepts of where life might be found in our own solar system and beyond.  This presentation highlights the Cassini mission’s most intriguing discoveries.