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| Titan Fly-by - 21 May 2009 |
| On Thursday, 21 May, Cassini returns to Saturn's largest moon for the mission's fifty-sixth targeted encounter with Titan: T55. The closest approach to Titan occurs at 21:26:41 UTC at an altitude of 965 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 6.0 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach is 22°S and the encounter occurs on orbit number 111. |
| Date: 19 May 2009 |
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| Titan Fly-by - 5 May 2009 |
| On Tuesday, 5 May, Cassini returns to Saturn's largest moon for the mission's fifty-fifth targeted encounter with Titan: T54. The closest approach to Titan occurs at 22:54:15 UTC at an altitude of 3244 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 5.8 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach is 14.1°S. The encounter occurs on orbit number 110 and just fifteen days after the previous fly-by. |
| Date: 05 May 2009 |
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| Titan Fly-by - 20 April 2009 |
| On Monday, 20 April, Cassini returns to Saturn's largest moon for the mission's fifty-fourth targeted encounter with Titan: T53. The closest approach to Titan occurs at 00:20:45 UT at an altitude of 3600 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 5.8 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach is 7.7°S and the encounter occurs on orbit number 109. |
| Date: 20 Apr 2009 |
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| Titan Fly-by - 4 April 2009 |
| On Saturday, 4 April, the Cassini spacecraft returns to Saturn's largest moon for the mission's fifty-third targeted encounter with Titan: T52. The closest approach to Titan occurs at 01:47:47 UT at an altitude of 4150 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 5.8 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach is 2.8°S and the encounter occurs on orbit number 108. |
| Date: 03 Apr 2009 |
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| Titan Fly-by - 27 March 2009 |
| Friday, 27 March, Cassini returns to Saturn's largest moon for the mission's fifty-second targeted encounter with Titan: Titan-51. The closest approach to Titan occurs at 04:43:36 UT, at an altitude of 960 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 6.3 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach is 30.9°S and the encounter occurs on orbit number 106. |
| Date: 25 Mar 2009 |
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| Titan Fly-by - 7 February 2009 |
| Saturday 7 February the Cassini spacecraft returns to Saturn's largest moon for the mission's fifty-first targeted encounter with Titan. The closest approach to Titan occurs at 08:50:51 UTC at an altitude of 960 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 6.3 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach is 33.7°S and the encounter occurs on orbit number 102. |
| Date: 05 Feb 2009 |
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| Titan Fly-by - 21 December 2008 |
| Sixteen days after its previous fly-by, the Cassini spacecraft returns to Saturn's largest moon for the mission's fiftieth targeted encounter with Titan. The closest approach to Titan occurs on Sunday, 21 December, at 12:59:53 UT at an altitude of 970 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 6.3 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach is 43.9°S and the encounter occurs on orbit number 97. |
| Date: 19 Dec 2008 |
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| Titan Fly-by - 5 December 2008 |
| Sixteen days after its previous flyby, the Cassini spacecraft once again approached Saturn's largest moon for the mission's forty-ninth targeted encounter with Titan. The closest approach to Titan occured on Friday 5 December at 14:25:45 UTC, at an altitude of 960 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 6.3 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach was 10.3°S and the encounter occured on orbit number 95. |
| Date: 10 Dec 2008 |
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| Titan Fly-by - 19 November 2008 |
| Sixteen days after its previous visit, Cassini once again approaches Saturn's moon Titan for the mission's forty-eighth targeted encounter. The closest approach to Titan occurs on Wednesday, 19 November, at 15:56:28 UTC at an altitude of 1022.6 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 6.3 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach is 21.6° S and the encounter occurs on orbit number 93. |
| Date: 18 Nov 2008 |
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| Titan Fly-by - 3 November 2008 |
| After more than three months since its previous visit, the Cassini spacecraft once again approached Saturn's largest moon for the mission's forty-seventh targeted encounter with Titan. The closest approach to Titan occurred on Sunday, 3 November, at 17:35:23 UT at an altitude of 1100 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 6.3 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach was 3.5° S and the encounter occurred on orbit number 91. |
| Date: 06 Nov 2008 |
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| Enceladus Fly-by - 31 October 2008 |
| Just over three weeks after the previous fly-by of Enceladus, Cassini will again fly by this Saturnian moon, passing at an altitude of 197 kilometres. Cassini will approach Enceladus on a fast, inclined trajectory over the northern hemisphere and will depart over the southern hemisphere. The closest approach occurs on 31 October at 17:14:51 UT over latitude 28° S and longitude 97° W. |
| Date: 29 Oct 2008 |
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| Enceladus Fly-by - 9 October 2008 |
| On 9 October 2008 Cassini will fly closer to the surface of Enceladus and deeper through the south polar plume than ever before. The closest approach occurs at 19:06:40 UT at an altitude of just 25 kilometres above the surface and at a relative speed of 17.7 kms-1. The latitude at closest approach is 28° S, the longitude is 97° W. Just 29 seconds after closest approach, Cassini will fly directly over the south pole at an altitude of 339 kilometres. Enceladus will enter eclipse ~46 minutes after closest approach, and remain in Saturn's shadow for 2.5 hours. |
| Date: 07 Oct 2008 |
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| Enceladus Fly-by - 11 August 2008 |
| On Monday, 11 August 2008, Cassini will visit Enceladus and obtain the highest resolution images to date of the moon's enigmatic south polar region. The closest approach occurs at 21:06:19 UTC at an altitude of just 54 kilometres above the moon's surface and at a relative speed of 17.7 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach is 28° S, the longitude is 98° W. |
| Date: 08 Aug 2008 |
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| Cassini confirms liquid surface on Titan |
| Observations with the VIMS instrument on Cassini have identified the presence of liquid ethane in one of the large lake-like features observed on Saturn's moon, Titan. These results are reported by R. Brown and colleagues in the 31 July issue of Nature. |
| Date: 31 Jul 2008 |
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| Titan Flyby - 31 July 2008 |
| Just over two months after its last visit, Cassini once again approaches Titan for the mission's forty-sixth targeted encounter with the large moon: T45. This is the first Titan encounter in Cassini's Equinox Mission.
The closest approach to Titan occurs on Thursday, 31 July, at 02:13:11 UT at an altitude of 1613 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 6.3 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach is 43.3° S and the encounter occurs on orbit number 78. |
| Date: 30 Jul 2008 |
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| Start of the Cassini Equinox Mission |
| June 30 marks the end of the four-year primary mission for the Cassini spacecraft and the start of the extended mission.
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| Date: 30 Jun 2008 |
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| Titan Flyby - 28 May 2008 |
| Wednesday, 28 May, Cassini returns to Titan for the mission's forty-fifth targeted encounter with Saturn's largest moon: Titan-44. The closest approach occurs at 08:24:32 UTC, at an altitude of 1400 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 6.3 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach is 12.4° N and the encounter occurs on orbit number 69. |
| Date: 27 May 2008 |
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| Titan Flyby - 12 May 2008 |
| Monday 12 May, Cassini returns to Titan for the mission's forty-fourth targeted encounter: Titan-43. The closest approach occurs at 10:01:58 UT, at an altitude of 1000 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 6.3 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach is 17.1° N and the encounter occurs on orbit number 67. |
| Date: 09 May 2008 |
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| Cassini mission extended to 2010 |
| NASA has extended the Cassini operations phase for the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens mission for two more years. The mission, originally scheduled to end in July 2008, will continue studying Saturn, its environment and moons until 2010. |
| Date: 15 Apr 2008 |
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| Composition and Origin of Enceladus' Plume |
| During Cassini's close flyby of Enceladus on 12 March, the spacecraft flew through the moon's plume that originates from jets in Enceladus' south polar region. Both the plume and the south polar surface were studied during this very close approach of Saturn's sixth largest moon. |
| Date: 27 Mar 2008 |
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