After an almost two decade long journey into spacenasa's Cassini Huygens mission in collaboration with the ESA finally came to an end in 2017. thespacecraft successfully orbited Saturn and its moons after launching in 1997 before enteringinto the planet's atmosphere one final time and is now forever immortalized by becoming a partof Saturn itself the mission proved to be the key factor in our exploration of the saturniansystem and has answered some key questions we've had about the planet for years all whileoffering stunning views of our giant neighbor welcome the fact nominal and in today's videowe will take a close look at some of the most amazing images NASA's Cassini spacecraft has beenable to capture of the large ringed planet Saturn the collaborative efforts of nasa the Europeanspace agency and the Italian space agency gave .
Birth to one of the most successful exploratorymissions the Cassini-Huygens mission after initially being launched in 1997 the spacecrafttook seven years to actually reach Saturn its prime target of exploration on October 21 2002 thefirst ever color composite image of the planet was taken by the spacecraft at the time the CassiniHuygens was 20 months and 177 million miles away from Saturn to put that into perspective that'salmost about twice the distance between the sun and the earth it was a lengthy painstaking processfor the spacecraft to maneuver around the giant ringed planet in an attempt to get closer andit was only in 2004 that it was able to provide another closer image displaying Saturn and itslarge rings in all its glory after that point the spacecraft began closely photographingand exploring Saturn and its moons making it .
The last image that the spacecraft was able tocapture the entire planet and its ring system the Cassini-Huygens mission was able to get upclose and personal with Saturn like never before offering us the opportunity to experience itsbeauty first hand after years of being more of an enigma in the sky the ringed planet wasfinally unveiled and along with its ridiculously large number of moons in the image captured by thespacecraft the planet's two tiny moons were seen in orbit Rhea and Dion seem to be posing withtheir parent planet for this breathtaking image the two moons are the second and fourth largestof all the moons respectively but in comparison to the planet they are almost dwarfed by Saturn's theshadow of the moon tethys is also visible close to the bottom of the planet another image showsSaturn's largest moon titan which happens to be .
About 3 200 miles across and still manages to looksmall and pea-sized in comparison to the planet prometheus which is only 53 mileswide can also be seen above the rings in the image captured by Cassini'swide-angle camera on January 5th, 2012. one of the highlights of the Cassini mission wasall of the information it was able to collect about Saturn's fascinating satellite Enceladusit was the images captured by the spacecraft that actually gave scientists the strong evidencethat the moon possesses a worldwide liquid water ocean underneath its shell somewhere30 to 40 kilometers below the surface the images taken show the plumes of liquid waterspewing out into space through the cracks of the surface according to the scientists they foundat least 101 different sites where geysers .
Would regularly erupt Cassini also discovered thepresence of hydrogen in the plumes which could be hinting that there are hydrothermal vents in theocean which some scientists believe could create a favorable place for life to exist Cassiniscientist hunter white said in an interview i would be surprised if we didn't find lifeon Enceladus but i would be happy to find the answer one way or the other because i thinkboth of them whether you find it or not will lead to a better understanding of how life aroseon earth and what it really means Enceladus has been in the spotlight ever since and new probesare being developed to find out more about it Saturn is known as the ringed planet and for goodreason it has the most extensive ring system in our solar system and the Cassini spacecraft wasable to capture a stunning image to show just that .
From afar the rings may appear smooth andperfect but up close it has many imperfections or spokes haps and smudges that stick outradially somewhat like spokes in a bike wheel this image is the highest resolution colorimage of any part of Saturn's rings and gives us a good idea of just how impressive they arethe picture was created using two photos taken by the spacecraft and showcases the inner centralpart of the planet's b ring while Saturn's rings may look static when viewed from a telescope upclose they are a constantly moving sea of ice rock and dust particles each one in its own orbitaround Saturn like a tiny moon the rings move at varying speeds as the inner rings move faster thanthe out according to nasa it still remains unclear what exactly causes the variable brightnessof the ringlets and bands either due to the .
Way the particles are all densely packed or thebrighter particles own shadow being cast are the two possible reasons the inner parts of the ringsmove around Saturn faster than the outer parts all in accordance with Kepler's third law for smallmoving objects revolving around a massive large one they orbit the planet with periods rangingfrom 5.8 hours for the inner edge of the c-ring to 14.3 hours for the outer edge of the moredistant a-ring along with that Cassini was also able to observe evidence of collisions in Saturn'srings from meteoroids and other celestial bodies through the pictures that show the sort ofripple effect the crash had on the rings over the years Cassini began a series of maneuversthat allowed it to zoom in between Saturn and its innermost rings the data from these maneuverswas instrumental in Cassini's final descent .
Speaking of critical descents landing on titanwas another first of this miraculous mission titan is the largest moon in the ringed planetsolar system but also happens to be the second largest natural satellite in our solar systemthe Huygens probe made history when it was able to successfully land on the surface of titan andcapture breathtaking images of the ice giant up close this was the first probe to land on a bodyin the outer solar system and the furthest from earth the first image taken shows the closestcolored picture of the moon's surface that you could possibly get the initial raw imagesshowed short stubby drainage-like channels leading to what seemed to be a shorelinethere it captured evidence of dry lakes riverbeds and mysterious methane and in thefisheye view of titan you can get a clear .
Idea of what the textured surface looks like justlike jupiter's great red spot scientists have been fascinated with a hexagonal-shaped jet streambetter known as the hexagon that can be seen at the planet's north pole the view capturedfrom above the planet offers a rare insight into one of the planet's most intriguing featuresvoyager had first gathered data about the storm but it was only until the Cassini-Huygensspacecraft was able to get a close look that it really confirmed its existence the probe was alsoable to capture images of two huge storms on the planet's north pole which resemble huge hurricanesmuch like the ones we have here on planet earth based on the images and the observationsfrom NASA's Cassini scientists suggest that the hexagonal pattern continues to persist in thecloud tops because there is a shallow jet stream .
In the region that happens to be supportedby winds that aren't too far underneath from a distance of about seven hundredthousand miles above the planet's surface Cassini captured the multi-hued bands ofswirling clouds in Saturn's northern hemisphere with the help of its wide-angle camera the swirlseems subtle but it showcases the beauty and lovely atmosphere of the planet it shines at lowangles along the boundary and in certain places highlighting vertical structure in the clouds thatalmost seems to separate the night from day the image captured the almost enchanting watercolorlike swirls that can be seen all throughout the planet's atmosphere from a distance of coursethese bands represent the air flowing at different pewds and clouds and varying heights and the pointwhere the bands meet and flow past each other .
Creates the dreamy swirls which proves thatSaturn is nothing less than a work of art the Cassini-Huygens mission was ahuge success for more reasons than one we can accredit most of the data and knowledgewe have about Saturn and its moons thanks to this ambitious mission so what do you think shouldwe head back to Enceladus or should we focus on our efforts somewhere else let us know in thecomments don't forget to smash that like button and subscribe to the channel so you don't miss athing thanks for watching we'll see you next time
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Does Saturn’s Moon Enceladus harbor life? A Cassini Scientist seems to think so. After an almost two-decade long journey into space, NASA’s Cassini Huygens mission, in collaboration with the ESA, has finally come to an end. The spacecraft successfully orbited Saturn and its moons after launching in 1997 before entering into the planet’s atmosphere one final time and is now forever immortalized by becoming a part of Saturn itself. The mission proved to be the key factor in our exploration of the Saturnian system and has answered some key questions we’ve had about the planet for years, all while offering stunning views of our giant neighbor. Welcome to Factnomenal and in today’s video we’re going to take a close look at the groundbreaking discoveries and incredible images of NASA’s most inspiring mission. Buy us a coffee to show your support! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Factnomenal DON’T CLICK THIS LINK: https://tinyurl.com/357shs3j Thanks for watching Factnomenal! 🌎 Subscribe for more space discoveries, space facts, and space in general! 🔔 Hit the bell next to subscribe so you never miss a video! ► For copyright matters, make sure to send us an email to Adam@trustedmiddle.com #saturn #factnomenal #space
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