The « Grand finale »
The organizers of the Cassini-Huygens mission have thought up a grand finale : from April to Septemberr 2017, the probe will do twenty-two orbits around the giant planet, approaching it, crossing its rings and finally disintegrating in its atmospheree.
This termination to the Cassini-Huygens mission of NASA, of the European Space Agency (ESA) and of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) should yield information on the internal structure of Saturn and on the origin of its rings.
Accompanied by the leading experts, at the auditorium of the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie with a real time link to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at Pasadena in California, we will summarize, from 11h to 14h40 the discoveries made by the mission, and will await eagerly the ultimate images sent from the very close vicinity of Saturn’s ring.
This event, in which will be participating Gilles Dawidowicz from the Société astronomique de France, and Frédéric Castel, science journalist at Pasadena, will be shown in real time in the Hall of the Cité (free access) and in streaming on YouTube <https://youtu.be/NO6JP8qgQ_8> .
The Cité des sciences et de l’industrie is also proposing :
From 14h30 to 16h : a demonsstration of virtual reality
Leave for Titan, with the help of virtual reality. In the Hall, while there is room.
The event will be followed by the documentary film /A la conquête de Titan/ (the conquest of Titan) from 16h to 17h30 in the auditorium : the authors will be there.
Telescopic observation of Saturn will be organized from 19h30 to 21h30 (if the sky is clear) in the presence of scientific experts from the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie and of astronomers from the Paris Observatory.
The experts :
- Régis Courtin, CNRS research dirrector at the Paris Observatory,
in the Laboratoire d’Études Spatiales et d’Instrumentation en
Astrophysique (LESIA) ; - Marcello Fulchignoni, emeritus professor at the Paris Diderot
Univiersity, from the Paris Observatory, scientific director of the HASI insturment, at the Laboratoire d’Études Spatiales et
d’Instrumentation en Astrophysique (LESIA) - Laboratory for Space
Studies and Astrophysical Instrumentation ;
- Laurent Lamy, astronomer at the Paris Observatory, Laboratoire
d’Études Spatiales et d’Instrumentation en Astrophysique (LESIA)
-Laboratory for Space Studies and Astrophysical Instrumentation ;
- Philippe Zarka, CNRS research director at the Paris Observatory,
Laboratoire d’Études Spatiales et d’Instrumentation en Astrophysique
(LESIA)
- Jean-Pierre Lebreton, associate scientist at the LPC2E CNRS -
Orleans University ;
- Francis Rocard, head of the CNES program dor solar system exploration.
This event is organized by Universcience in pertnershsip with the CNES, ESA, the Paris Observatory, the CNRS and the SAF, and with the support of Air & Cosmos, Astronomie magazine, Ciel & Espace.
The Cassini-Huygens mission : a quick summary
Launched in 1997, the Cassini probe has been in orbit around Saturn since 2004.
The Cassini–Huygens probe is unusual from many points of view. At the time, it was the largest probe ever sent into space (6 tonnes half of which consisted of fuel, 4 metres in diameter, 12 metres long).
It carried 18 experiments whose purpose was to study Saturn, its rings, its magnetosphere, its satellites and in particular Titan.
ESA’s contribution is made up of the Huygens module, which carries 6 of the 18 experiments and which is devoted to the study of the satellite Titan. This module was released on December 25th 2004 and plunged successfully into Titan’s atmosphere on January 14th 2005.
The Paris Observatory scientists were closely involved in the design and realization of 6 of the 12 experiments on the Cassini probe and in 3 of the 6 on Huygens. We are now in the process of taking and analyzing the data.
The trip from the Earth to Saturn took a little less than 7 years. The path of Cassini–Huygens was punctuated by planetary encounters, which were used to accelerate the probe through gravitational assistance.