The grandeur of Saturn is stunning to behold when viewed through a telescope. Possibly the most iconic and easily identifiable member of our solar system, this “ringed planet” has a volume equivalent to 760 Earths and such astonishingly low density that the planet could even float on water. Until two decades ago, few missions had visited Saturn, although Pioneer 11 and the Voyager probes briefly flew by and gave us some stunning imagery and reconnaissance to identify particular areas of interest.Article continues after advertisement
It wasn’t until 2004 that the dedicated space probe Cassini arrived at the planet. After a seven-year journey to reach Saturn, Cassini spent the next thirteen years there, circling the planet almost 300 times and revealing in exquisite detail its dazzling wonders, like the raging storms on the planet’s northern hemisphere, housing a giant hurricane twenty times larger than anything seen on Earth. But the most dramatic and astonishing discovery from the Cassini mission came after data from the space probe revealed surprising details about Saturn’s moons, Titan and Enceladus. These breakthroughs shattered our preconceived ideas about the places we thought were interesting for supporting life.
