Saturn and the Cassini Spacecraft

The planet Saturn is called "The Jewel of the Solar System"

Saturn has the most extensive and complex ring system in our solar system, extending hundreds of thousands of miles from the planet. Made up of billions of particles of ice and rock - ranging in size from grains of sugar to houses - the rings orbit Saturn at varying speeds.

There are hundreds of individual rings, believed to be made of pieces of shattered moons, comets and asteroids. Each of the billions of rings particles orbits the planet on its own path.

Saturn is a gas giant, like Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. Saturn is made mostly of hydrogen and helium.

Four NASA spacecraft have been sent to explore Saturn. Pioneer 11 was first to fly past Saturn in 1979. Voyager 1 flew past a year later, followed by its twin, Voyager 2, in 1981.

Right now, the Cassini space craft is in orbit around Saturn. The Cassini spacecraft is the first to explore the Saturn system of rings and moons from orbit. Cassini entered orbit on Jun. 30, 2004 and immediately began sending back intriguing images and data. Currently, Cassini scientists are tracking the strongest lighting storm ever detected at Saturn. The storm is larger than the continental United States, with lightning 1,000 times stronger than Earth's lightning.

Saturn has 34 known moons. Saturn's moon Titan is bigger than the planets Mercury and Pluto and is one of the few moons in our solar system with its own atmosphere. Scientists are attracted to Titan because its atmosphere is similar to that on early Earth, before life began. Cassini released the European Space Agency's Huygens Probe in January 2005. The Huygens Probe dove into Titan's thick atmosphere to look at Titan's surface.

The Huygens Probe didn't find any water, but look at all the cool pictures (above) that Cassini has been taking.

Here is a link to NASA's Cassini web site(link)