ESA Science & Technology

Titan Flyby - 13 June 2007

On Wednesday 13 June, Cassini had its latest close encounter with Titan, coming within 975 km of the moon's surface. The flyby trajectory took the spacecraft over the north polar region at closest approach and the flyby geometry provided ideal conditions for study of the moon's upper atmosphere through solar occultation observations

Published: 12 June 2007

Titan Flyby - 28 May 2007

On 28 May, Cassini performed its latest close flyby of Titan, passing within 2300 kilometres of the moons surface at closest approach. The geometry of this flyby allowed for occultation observations of Titan's atmosphere and ionosphere using the spacecraft's Radio Science Subsystem.

Published: 25 May 2007

Formation of Organic Aerosols in Titan's Upper Atmosphere

Reported in Science, Cassini observations reveal a hitherto unnoticed process chain for the formation of large organic aerosols in the upper atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan.

Published: 11 May 2007

Titan Flyby - 12 May 2007

On Saturday, 12 May 2007, Cassini performed its 30th flyby of Saturn's largest moon Titan. It passed at an altitude of 960 kilometres above the moon's surface and during the flyby performed a wide range of different science observations of Titan's surface, atmosphere and magnetosphere

Published: 10 May 2007

Titan Flyby - 26 April 2007

Sixteen days after the Titan-28 flyby, Cassini revisits Titan. The closest approach to the Saturnian moon occurs on Thursday, 26 April, at 21:32:58 UT, at an altitude of 980 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 6.2 kilometres per second

Published: 23 April 2007

Titan Flyby - 10 April 2007

On 10 April, Cassini performed its 28th flyby of Titan, passing the moon's surface at only 990 km. Cassini's orbit takes the spacecraft over Titan's northern hemisphere and allowed further radar imaging of the north polar region

Published: 5 April 2007

Titan Flyby - 26 March 2007

Cassini returns to Titan on 26 March, passing at an altitude of 1010 km. Around closest approach, Cassini passes behind Titan for approximately 35 minutes as seen from Earth. This flyby configuration allows for bistatic radio measurements to be made of the moon's surface.

Published: 23 March 2007

Titan Flyby - 10 March 2007

Saturday, 10 March, Cassini will have its 27th targeted encounter with Titan, passing the moon at an altitude of 980 km. 45 minutes before closest approach, observations will be made of a solar occultation, with the Sun passing behind Titan's atmosphere from Cassini's point of view

Published: 7 March 2007

Huygens landing site to be named after Hubert Curien

ESA, the international Committee for Space Research (COSPAR) and NASA have decided to honour Professor Hubert Curien's contribution to European space by naming the Huygens landing site on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, after him.

Published: 6 March 2007

Titan Flyby - 22 February 2007

During a close flyby of Titan on 22 February 2007, Cassini's radar observations focus on the moon's north pole region, where lakes have been spotted. The imaged area crosses radar swaths from several earlier flybys.

Published: 21 February 2007

Titan Flyby - 29 January 2007

On 29 January, at 7:16 UT, Cassini will perform the 24th set of Titan observations during a close flyby of the moon during which it comes to within 2631 kilometres from the moon's surface.

Published: 26 January 2007

Titan Flyby - 13 January 2007

Sixteen days after its last flyby of Titan, Cassini returns for its twenty-fourth targeted encounter, Titan-23. The closest approach to Titan occurs on Saturday, 13 January, 08:38:31 UTC at an altitude of 1000 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 6.0 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach is 31° N (over an area known as Aaru), and the encounter occurs on orbit number 37.

Published: 11 January 2007

Cassini finds Northern Lakes on Titan

Newly released results, obtained by the RADAR instrument on board Cassini during a close flyby of Titan in July 2006, provide the strongest evidence yet for the existence of hydrocarbon lakes on the large moon.

Published: 5 January 2007

Titan Flyby - 28 December 2006

Just 16 days after Titan-21, Cassini returns to Titan for its twenty-third targeted encounter. During this last flyby of the year, Titan's gravity field will be measured by Cassini's radio science instruments in search for a potential subsurface ocean. The closest approach to Titan occurs on Thursday, 28 December, at 10:05:22 UTC at an altitude of 1300 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 5.9 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach is 40.2° N and the encounter occurs on orbit number 36.

Published: 27 December 2006

Massive Mountains on Titan

Observations made during the recent flyby of Titan, on 25 October 2006, by the Cassini spacecraft, have revealed a massive mountain range on Saturn's largest moon.

Published: 13 December 2006

Titan Flyby - 12 December 2006

After 48 days Cassini returns to Titan for its twenty-second targeted encounter, Titan-21. The closest approach to Titan occurs on Tuesday, 12 December at 11:41:31 UT, at an altitude of 1000 km above the surface and at a speed of 5.9 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach is 43.9° N (over the uncharted area known only as 'Belet') and the encounter occurs on orbit number 35.

Published: 7 December 2006

South Polar Storms on Saturn

The instruments on board the Cassini spacecraft have observed an enormous storm raging in the atmosphere above Saturn's south pole. This type and scale of storm has never before been seen on another planet.

Published: 14 November 2006

Titan Flyby - 25 October 2006

Only 16 days after Titan-19, Cassini returns to Titan for its twenty-first targeted encounter. The closest approach to Titan occurs on Wednesday, 25 October 2006, at 15:58:07 UT at an altitude of 1030 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 5.99 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach is 7.5° and the encounter occurs on orbit number 31.

Published: 24 October 2006

Titan Flyby - 9 October 2006

On 9 October 2006, Cassini performs its 20th targeted flyby of Titan. Among other science objectives, Cassini will use the RADAR instrument to image the lakes at high northern latitudes that were discovered during an earlier flyby in July this year.

Published: 9 October 2006

Huygens Probe Descent Multilingual CDROM

A multilingual version of the Huygens Descent movies is now available, thanks to a collaboration between Europlanet and the ESA Communication office.

Published: 26 September 2006

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