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We know very little about the area of our solar system that contains the planet Saturn. Named for the father of Jupiter in Roman mythology, Saturn was the Roman god of fertility and farming. Hopefully, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft will bring us closer to understanding this very unique planet and its surroundings. On October 15, 1997, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft began a fascinating journey, traveling to Saturn by way of Venus, Earth and Jupiter. It will arrive at the Saturn region in July 2004 carrying 18 complex science instruments designed to gather data, images and information never before available to scientists on Earth. Once it arrives at Saturn Cassini-Huygens will continue to feed back data until at least the year 2008. The first spacecraft designed specifically to investigate the mysterious planet of Saturn as well as its atmosphere, moons and rings, Cassini-Huygens is a complex mission involving a multi-national effort and an innovative design to promote the advancement of space exploration never attempted before. Casinni’s flight operations make up the complicated process of tracking the spacecraft as it makes its journey to Saturn, capturing many images and scientific data along the way. With its stunning rings and dozens of moons, Saturn is an intriguing planet for many reasons. Barely smaller than Jupiter, it was formed four billion years ago and is comprised mainly of gas. Saturn is also the only planet known to be less dense than water, meaning that if it were placed inside a giant imaginary bathtub, it would float. Saturn has a huge magnetosphere and a stormy atmosphere, with winds clocked as high as 1,800 kilometers per hour near its equator. Of the 30 known moons orbiting Saturn, Titan is the largest. Larger than the planet Mercury and Earth’s own moon, Titan is of particular interest to scientist because it is the only moon in the solar system with its own atmosphere. However, what sets Saturn apart from the rest of the planets in the solar system, are its majestic rings.
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