Storms And Waves
It has enchanted astronomers for centuries, but Saturn close-up looks wholly new
CASSINI AND HUYGENS, THE PIGGYBACK PROBE
For seven years and two billion miles, the Cassini space-craft carried the Huygens lander up to Saturn. Last December, six months after Cassini began its four-year study of Saturn, it released Huygens–a probe the size of a Volkswagen Beetle–on a trajectory toward Saturn´s largest moon, Titan. When Huygens entered Titan´s atmosphere 21 days later, it relayed pictures and data back to Earth through Cassini.
| Better Than Evian | |
| In this UV image of the rings, blue regions are water ice; red, empty space. Scientists can´t explain how the ice stays 99 percent pure though bombarded by meteorites. | Scientists think that this storm, which flares up and recedes every few months, creates electrical eruptions that may cause powerful radio bursts. |