Launched on October 15, 1997, the Cassini probe passed close to the Earth last August, using its gravitational attraction to increase its speed and to deviate its trajectory in direction of external planets. The Cassini-Huygens mission will study Jupiter which it will fly over, at a distance of about 10 million kilometers, December 30, 2000.
The team of engineers and technicians who " controls " the machine since the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA in Pasadena announces that the probe is in excellent state and good way for an arrival to Saturn envisaged in July 2004. She will explore planet and its environment during 4 years. In November of the same year, the Huygens probe, built by the European Space Agency, will be detached from Cassini to plunge in the atmosphere and to the surface of the Titan satellite. The Paris Observatory took part in 5 of the 18 embarked experiments on board Cassini-Huygens and is implied in the setting in of 4 others.
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