5 Cassini facts to tell your pals

Brush up on the deets of the spacecraft of the moment.

With Cassini’s cosmic career embracing a Septembral retirement date, the current hype surrounding its imminent immersion into the unknown is peaking. But, with 13 years of orbital observations under its belt, the vast wealth of sexy data, which has travelled all the way to this very page and coalesced into words, is by no means insignificant. Here are five Cassini-found facts you can nonchalantly recite, over a beer with friends…
 
1.Pluming ‘eck
Ginormous plumes containing elements that form the stuff of life here on earth, have been seen erupting from Saturn’s lunar satellite, Enceladus. The geysers infer hydrothermal activity, which in turn infers the possibility of life. Cassini has fearlessly torn through the plumes, using its mass spectrometer to analyse composition. The absence of certain elements has caused scepticism, but this jet of juicy gossip continues to rouse speculation.
 
2.Easy tiger
If seen by astronomers of antiquity, the curious ‘Tiger’s Stripes’ on Enceladus would have no doubt been attributed to the claws of some constellate beast. We now know these marks are actually layers of ice, so thin the subterranean oceanic qualities of Enceladus are revealed. This confirms the icy moon’s status as an object for further investigation, with a potential mission lined up for a 2021.
 

3.Heliosphere schmeliosphere
The Cassini mission has provided extra data to support heliosphere measurements made by the two Voyager spacecraft and NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX). The new data suggests the heliosphere, created by our sun’s magnetic field, may actually be a rounded system, as opposed to the depiction originally agreed upon, which included a ‘heliotail’.
 
4.Put a ring on it
Galileo was the first to see Saturn’s celebrated rings, that fateful day in 1610, when he cast a telescope to the mystical heavens. From a 17th century vantage point, with 17th century technology, Galileo’s layman recital of his observations, were of a planet with ‘ears’. Now, we know those ‘ears’ are in fact rings, composed of compact snowballs and debris. Sure, Cassini didn’t break this news, but the flavour of the month has reported spectacular findings. (N.B. It was the Dutch astronomer, Christiaan Huygens, who correctly identified Saturn’s orbiting ornaments… which brings us to our next point.)
 
5.Hey Huygens
Finally, our little trooper didn’t venture completely alone. Cassini had a payload, which was delivered to Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. On 14th January 2005, Huygens left Cassini, and successfully entered Titan's upper atmosphere, descending by parachute to the surface. Huygens ceased to operate 70 minutes after landing, but the arrival marks a crucial milestone in space exploration; Titan is the farthest world any earthling-made technology has had the privilege to touch down upon.