Cassini at Saturn

Huygens Results

David M. Harland

The Cassini spacecraft entered orbit around Saturn on 1 July 2004. Several months later it released the Huygens probe which, on 14 January 2005, parachuted through the clouds of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, and successfully landed on its surface.

In Cassini at Saturn - Huygens Results, David Harland tells the exciting story of this craft’s journey to the surface of one of the most enigmatic bodies on the Solar System. Titan is the only moon to have a dense atmosphere and there are many large lakes of liquid hydrocarbons at -190°C on its surface. It is considered to be an early Earth in deep freeze, and may even have the building blocks of life on its surface.

The book reviews the first two years of scientific data from Cassini's tour of the Saturnian system. During this time it has revealed astonishing insights into some of Saturn’s other moons, such as Enceladus, which has geysers of water at its south pole, and Iapetus, one hemisphere of which is stained black.

Cassini at Saturn is the first book to appear with an incisive summary of this groundbreaking material. It includes the latest and most spectacular images from the mission, which have never appeared previously in book form. To provide background, the book starts by summarising what was known of the system prior to the mission.

Table of Contents

List of figures
Author's preface
Acknowledgements

Saturn from afar
First close look
Saturn revealed
The Titans
Cassini-Huygens

Notes
Acronyms
Facts and figures
Further reading
Index

Extent: 440 pages, 16-page colour section
Binding: Paperback
Published: 2007
ISBN: 978-0-387-26129-4

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