HR: 10:20h
AN: U22A-01 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Cassini-Huygens in Orbit about Saturn
AU: * Matson, D L
EM: dmatson@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AU: Lebreton, J
EM: Jean-Pierre.Lebreton@rssd.esa.int
AF: ESTEC/RSSD Planetary Mission Division, Keplerlaan 1, Norordwijk, 2200 AG Netherlands
AU: Spilker, L J
EM: Linda.J.Spilker@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AB: The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was successfully placed in an orbit about Saturn on June 30, 2004. Starting with our approach to Saturn, the instruments carried by the Orbiter have been very active since early 2004. As a result, all of the Cassini Orbiter investigations have scientific rsults to report. The excitement of discovery started with the flyby of Phoebe, a distant satellite and Cassini-Huygens' first "contact" with the Saturnian system. Phoebe dazzled us with its morphology and variation of composition across its surface. Next, the spacecraft entered the agnetosphere at a time several days sooner than we expected. Close to three weeks after the Phoebe flyby, Cassini-Huygens passed through the rings,and fired its engine to place itself in orbit around Saturn. At that time a series of close-in observations were made that provided unique observations of the rings and of the planet magnetic field. The second ring passage followed hours later on the outbound leg of the trajectory. Within less than 30 hours after the second passage through the rings, Cassini-Huygens approached Titan to within 340,000 km. Distant observations of Titan gave us direct indication that Saturn's largest moon is much more complex than any other object that we have ever seen. The first low altitude flyby on October 26th gave Cassini scientists their first good look at Titan and its surface from an altitude of 1200 km. Results from this flyby will be discussed. A second low altitude flyby (2800 km altitude) of Titan occurs on 13th December. In the present paper we present an overview of the main mission events starting from Saturn approach until today. Highlights of the discoveries made so far are presented and placed in the context of what we know about the Saturnian system. The plans for the Huygens mission at Titan are also described. Cassini-Huygens is a joint NASA-ESA program in cooperation with ASI.
DE: 6275 Saturn
DE: 6280 Saturnian satellites
SC: Union [U]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting