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Saturn Probe Ready to Reveal Lord of Rings

Posted on: Thursday, 1 July 2004, 06:00 CDT

A NEW era of space exploration dawned today as a six-ton, bus- sized probe began the first orbit of Saturn.

The Pounds 1.6 billion Cassini craft performed a balletic series of twists to slow from more 70,000mph and slip between two of the planet's famous rings.

A miscalculation or misfire of its engine, which has remained unused through its seven-year journey, would have seen the probe shoot past or smash into its mysterious target.

But the 2.2 billion-mile journey ended successfully with the craft safely in orbit and ready to embark on a four-year feast of scientific discovery.

The joint European and US probe, named after the 17th-century Italian astronomer Jean-Dominique Cassini who discovered four of Saturn's moons, is now 12,000 miles above the planet's surface and preparing to send back its first data.

British scientists have provided eight of the 18 critical instruments which will be used in the mission.

Professor Ian Halliday, chief executive of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, said: "Right now we stand on the threshold of a wealth of scientific discovery."

Planned for more than 15 years, Cassini represents the most ambitious unmanned space expedition in history and is the first time any craft has seen Saturn since Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 flew past in the early Eighties.

The mission will also send Huygens, a European Space Agency lander, down to the surface of Saturn's cloud-covered moon Titan early next year. It will be the

most distant landing on an interplanetary body ever attempted.

Titan has a surface temperature of minus 180C, and is thought to be too cold to sustain life - but scientists believe the conditions there mirror those that existed on Earth billions of years ago.

Cassini, the largest interplanetary spacecraft ever built, will orbit Saturn 76 times and have 52 close encounters with seven of Saturn's 31 known moons.

Scientists also hope to discover the origins of Saturn's famous rings. It is thought they may have been formed from larger moons that were shattered by impacts of comets and meteorites, or they may be composed of mini-icebergs.

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