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Articles on Cassini

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Galileo thought Saturn looked a bit like the head of a teddy bear with two big ears. He thought it may be made of three planets. www.shuttershock.com

Curious Kids: why does Saturn have rings?

Most people think that many millions of years ago, Saturn didn’t have rings at all. Instead, it had a big moon moving around it. Eventually, the moon burst and broke into pieces.
With giant Saturn hanging in the blackness and sheltering Cassini from the Sun’s blinding glare, the spacecraft viewed the rings as never before. NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

A brief astronomical history of Saturn’s amazing rings

Although the rings of Saturn may look like a permanent fixture of the planet, they are ever-changing. New analyses of the rings reveal how and when they were made, from what and whether they’ll last.
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captures Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, passes in front of the planet and its rings. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Capturing the shadow of Saturn’s moon Titan from right here on Earth

Titan is more than a billion kilometres from our Sun but occasionally it’s shadow can be seen here on Earth, with the right technology. That’s what scientists gathered in Western Australia to observe.
Cassini makes the first radio occultation of Saturn’s rings producing this simulated image with green for particles smaller than 5cm and purple where particles are larger. NASA/JPL

The beauty and mystery of Saturn’s rings revealed by the Cassini mission

The Cassini space probe took us up close and through the beautiful rings of Saturn. It captured some amazing images, and even the sound of the rings during its mission.
A Cassini portrait of five of Saturn’s moons. Janus (179km across) is on the far left, Pandora (81km across) orbits between the A ring and the thin F ring, Enceladus (504km across) is centre, Rhea (1,528km), is bisected by the right edge of the image and the smaller moon Mimas (396km) is seen beyond Rhea also on the right side of the image. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

What Cassini’s mission revealed about Saturn’s known and newly discovered moons

The Cassini space probe discovered several new moons on its mission to Saturn, and revealed fresh views of the moons we already knew about.
Saturn and its rings backlit by the sun, which is blocked by the planet in this view. Encircling the planet and inner rings is the much more extended E-ring. NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Water, weather, new worlds: Cassini mission revealed Saturn’s secrets

With the probe now on its ‘Grand Finale,’ a Cassini team member describes the amazing discoveries it made about the ringed planet and its many moons.

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