2003-12-15 |
Saturn Rings in the New Year

At midnight on December 31st, Saturn will be about as close as it can get to Earth – 748 million miles. Also, the rings of Saturn will be tilted toward Earth, offering an amazing view of the ringed planet.

2004 is going to be a big year for Saturn. The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft, en route since 1997, will arrive there in June. When Cassini reaches Saturn it will stay, orbiting and studying the planet for at least four years.

Cassini will also deliver the European Space Agency's Huygens probe to the surface of Saturn's moon, Titan. Huygens will take more than 1,100 pictures during its two and a half hour descent by parachute. Scientific instruments will sample Titan's atmosphere, gauge its winds, and--if the probe survives landing--measure the physical properties of the ground. Huygens probably won't find evidence of life, at least not life as we know it. Titan is too cold. Its surface temperature, researchers estimate, is 289°F below zero. Yet, Titan's atmosphere is rich in organic compounds: ethane, methane, hydrogen cyanide and others. The low temperature of the moon encourages ethane and methane to liquefy, so there might be puddles, lakes or even oceans of liquid hydrocarbons sloshing around on the surface. Perhaps these are places where organic molecules get together for the first stirrings of simple life.

The Cassini-Huygens mission will help answer many questions about the potential for life on Titan. Discovering evidence of past or present life beyond Earth and developing the methods with which to recognize these signs are major goals of astrobiology. Determining the limits of life in extreme environments is also an important aspect of astrobiological research.

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