. | . |
Saturn spacecraft toting CU Boulder instrument starts swan song by Staff Writers Boulder CO (SPX) Apr 27, 2017
Toting a $12 million instrument built by the University of Colorado Boulder, NASA's Cassini spacecraft made the first of 22 dives between the rings of Saturn and the gaseous planet today, the beginning of the end for one of NASA's most successful missions ever. Launched in 1997 and pulling up at Saturn in 2004 for the first of hundreds of orbits through the Jovian system, the Cassini-Huygens mission has fostered scores of dazzling discoveries. These include in-depth studies that date and even weigh the astonishing rings; the discovery of methane lakes on the icy moon Titan; hot water plumes found squirting from the moon Enceladus; and closeup views of the bright auroras at the planet's poles. Saturn's signature rings have been charted from nearly every angle by the UltraViolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS), designed and built by a team at CU Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. And while the debate on the age of the rings continues, they may have formed about the time the solar system was assembling itself some 4.6 billion years ago, said Professor Larry Esposito, principal investigator of UVIS. "The evidence is consistent with the picture that Saturn has had rings throughout its history," said Esposito, one of the world's experts in planetary rings, who discovered Saturn's faint F ring in 1979 using data from NASA's Pioneer 11 spacecraft. "We see extensive, rapid recycling of ring material in which moons are continually shattered into ring particles, which then gather and reform moons." Other startling discoveries led by CU Boulder with UVIS include the detection of microscopic grains of dust near Saturn, implying hydrothermal geysers are emanating from a salty ocean beneath the surface of the moon Enceladus. Subsequent UVIS measurements indicated the intensity of gas and dust jets mysteriously increases when Enceladus is farther from the ringed planet, said Esposito. This is of high interest to scientists since the subterranean Enceladus ocean may contain the ingredients for life. The Cassini spacecraft flew past Saturn's moon Titan April 23 before its initial dive this morning between the planet and its innermost rings. Following the final ring-dive on September 15, when its fuel will be spent, the Cassini spacecraft will enter Saturn's crushing atmosphere and vaporize. "We think there will be a lot of discoveries between now and then," said Esposito. "But September 15 will be a bittersweet ending to a mission that has fascinated us as scientists and enthralled the public with images and new findings for many years." Cassini's UVIS instrument, a set of telescopes used to measure ultraviolet light from the Saturn system's atmospheres, rings and moons, has proven effective for many observations. UVIS has been used to study the structure and evolution of Saturn's rings; the chemistry, clouds and energy balance of Saturn and Titan; and the surfaces and atmospheres of some of Saturn's 62 known moons. CU Boulder is the only university in the world to have designed and built instruments that have visited every planet in the solar system, including Pluto. One of LASP's hallmarks is the involvement of undergraduates and graduate students in every aspect of its space missions. LASP students currently control four NASA satellites from campus, and there are about 120 students working at LASP on different aspects of flight projects, ranging from engineering and spacecraft operations to data management and science analysis.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 25, 2017 NASA's Cassini spacecraft has had its last close brush with Saturn's hazy moon Titan and is now beginning its final set of 22 orbits around the ringed planet. The spacecraft made its 127th and final close approach to Titan on April 21 at 11:08 p.m. PDT (2:08 a.m. EDT [06:08 UTC] on April 22), passing at an altitude of about 608 miles (979 kilometers) above the moon's surface. Cassini ... read more Related Links University of Colorado at Boulder Explore The Ring World of Saturn and her moons Jupiter and its Moons The million outer planets of a star called Sol News Flash at Mercury
|
|
The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us. |