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Saturn

Reference Sites (see also the Solar System overview)

  • NASA: Saturn page, including fact sheet, images, information on missions, resources.
  • General Information: The Nine Planets Saturn page; Astronomy for Kids page; American Association of Amateur Astronomers Saturn page; Virtual Journey into the Universe pages.
  • Amateur Observation: Sky & Telescope's observing guide.
  • Images: Alwyn Botha's The-Solar-System Saturn page; NASA gallery; JPL pages.

Special Topics

  • Historical Background: NASA page; Galileo and Saturn.
  • Rings: JPL's faq's page.
  • Occultations: Clip of grazing occultation by the Moon.

Missions and Exploration (Planetary Society overview page)

  • Voyager 1 & 2: (GSFC, JPL); Missions to the outher Solar System; Launched in 1977 to take advantage of the fact that the Jovian planets would be in the same general direction for a few years; as of 11.2001, they are respectively 12.4 and 9.8 trillion km (82,000 and 65,000 au) from the Sun. Voyager 1, the most distant human-made object, has been renamed Voyager Interstellar Mission (August 2002 New York Times article).
  • Cassini: NASA mission launched in Oct 1997, flew by Jupiter to receive a gravity assist and boost its speed, and is scheduled to reach Saturn in Jul 2004; includes Huygens probe (current position page; articles from CNN, SFN)
  • Huygens Probe: Arrived at Saturn riding on the Cassini spacecraft, and descended on Saturn's moon Titan in January 2005 (ESA).

References

  • A. Coustenis & F. Taylor, Titan: The Earth-Like Moon, World Scientific 2002.
  • R. Lorenz & J. Mitton, Lifting Titan's Veil: Exploring the Giant Moon of Saturn, Cambridge University Press 2002.

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