Cassini at Saturn: 2004-2011. In July, 1997 NASA launched the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft to Saturn. Seven years later, in July, 2004, it arrived, passed between the rings, and began a four-year mission of exploration of Saturn, its rings, and moons. Six months later, in January of 2005, the Huygens probe was detached and sent parachuting down to the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, 1.5 times larger than our Moon. With all systems still functioning and obtaining amazing results, in July 2008 the mission was extended 2 years so that the change from Saturn's winter to spring could be observed in August, 2009. And last year the Cassini mission was extended again, for seven years to July, 2017.
ESA: Saturn Secrets Revealed. Thirty years ago the Voyager spacecraft offered the first closeup views of Saturn. Launched in 1997 Cassini-Huygens, a joint NASA/ESA/ASI mission, arrived around Saturn in July 2004 and the Huygens Probe landed on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, in January 2005. The ESA probe was the first to land on a world in the outer Solar System. Since 2005 Cassini-Huygens mission has obtained infinitely more detailed and beautiful images of the ringed planet and its many moons. Data from Cassini and Huygens are offering clues about how life began on Earth.
NASA - Titan - A View from Huygens - Jan. 14, 2005. This movie was built with data collected during the 147-minute plunge through Titan's thick orange-brown atmosphere to a soft sandy riverbed by the European Space Agency's Huygens Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer on Jan. 14, 2005.
In 4 minutes and 40 seconds, the movie shows what the probe "saw" within the few hours of the descent and the landing. On approach, Titan appeared as just a little disk in the sky among the stars, but after landing, the probe's camera resolved little grains of sand millions of times smaller than Titan.
Saturn's Moon: Iapetus Rotation. Iapetus (pronounced /aɪˈæpɨtəs/, or as Greek Ιαπετός), occasionally Japetus (pronounced /ˈdʒæpɨtəs/), is the third-largest moon of Saturn, and eleventh in the solar system, Iapetus is best known for its dramatic 'two-tone' coloration, but recent discoveries by the Cassini mission have revealed several other unusual physical characteristics, such as an equatorial ridge that runs about halfway around the moon.
Saturn's Moon: Mimas Rotation. Mimas was discovered by the astronomer William Herschel on September 17, 1789. He recorded his discovery as follows: "The great light of my forty-foot telescope was so useful that on the 17th of September, 1789, I remarked the seventh satellite, then situated at its greatest western elongation."
Mimas is named after one of the Titans in Greek mythology, Mimas. The names of all seven then-known satellites of Saturn, including Mimas, were suggested by William Herschel's son John in his 1847 publication Results of Astronomical Observations made at the Cape of Good Hope.
Titan (Part1) - Solar system in pictures. Images of Saturn's 21st moon - Titan. Taken by Cassini Orbiter & Voyager.
Titan (Part2) - Solar system in pictures. Images of Saturn's 21st moon - Titan. Taken by Cassini Orbiter & Voyager, Huygens Probe.