Abstract
(Open to Members of Cardiff Astronomical Society)
The international NASA/ESA Cassini-Huygens space mission which is presently in orbit
around the Saturn/Titan system is providing us with spectacular results and discoveries.
I will describe some of the results we’ve obtained so far and will reveal how the
inter-disciplinary nature of the suite of instruments on board the spacecraft allows
us to interpret the observations. The discovery of a plume/dynamic atmosphere on
Saturn’s small icy moon, Enceladus, is the best example of such analysis. Recent
results concerning Saturn’s interplanetary magnetic field will also be described
as well as observations from its large moon, Titan, the only moon in the solar system
with a dense Earth-like atmosphere. The international collaborations arising from
this mission are focusing plans for a future mission to the Jupiter system, with
a focus on two of its moons, Europa and Ganymede, with potential water oceans beneath
their surfaces.
