Spacecraft Cassini has now been in space for more than two and a half years and has already transmitted some of the best that the world can see of the distant planet.
This journey of Cassini will continue till June 30, 2008.
During the primary tour of Cassini it would have made 46 close encounters of Titan, four encounters of moon Enceladus and one each of Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Hyperion, Lapetus and Phoebe.
The space craft has already made some interesting flybys of the moons and the planet in particular and has relayed the information of Saturn its climate, weather patterns and Magnetosphere. It has viewed the planet from a variety of angles so that the detailed view of the planet can be observed.
The spacecraft’s flybys of Titan were necessary as the moon is large enough to tilt the spacecraft into a radically new orbit.
The spacecraft has done a fantastic job till now as it has revealed the major new mysteries about Titan and Enceladus. Both these destinations are important as astronauts believe that there is a possibility that one or both these moons have evolved microscopic life beneath the icy crust.
Currently the spacecraft is making another close flyby of Titan so that the moon can tilt its orbit at a sharp angle allowing Saturn and its entire ring system to be seen for the first time from above.
After monitoring the ring system the spacecraft will again be tilted such that by the end of its primary tour it will be in near-polar orbit tilted fully 74 degrees out of Titan’s equatorial plane. This will enable the spacecraft to get the most detailed observations of Saturn.
In September this year Cassini will make a flyby of the most hard to reach moon called Lapetus and will come within 1500 km of it and make the best possible observations of the moon.
Then in March next year Cassini will make a very close flyby of Enceladus reaching just 23km from the surface of the moon.
Via: saturndaily
