Podcaster: Richard Drumm
Title: Space Scoop: Goodbye From Cassini
Organization:365 Days Of Astronomy
Link : astrosphere.org ; http://unawe.org/kids/unawe1702/
Description: Space scoop, news for children
Bio: Richard Drumm is President of the Charlottesville Astronomical Society and President of 3D – Drumm Digital Design, a video production company with clients such as Kodak, Xerox and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals. He was an observer with the UVa Parallax Program at McCormick Observatory in 1981 & 1982. He has found that his greatest passion in life is public outreach astronomy and he pursues it at every opportunity.
Today’s sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by — no one. We still need sponsors for many days in 2016, so please consider sponsoring a day or two. Just click on the “Donate” button on the lower left side of this webpage, or contact us at signup@365daysofastronomy.org.
Transcript:
This is the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast. Today we bring you a new episode in our Space Scoop series. This show is produced in collaboration with Universe Awareness, a program that strives to inspire every child with our wonderful cosmos.
Goodbye From Cassini
Starting in late January, 2017, two enormous radio dishes, on opposite sides of the Earth, in New Norcia, Western Australia and Malargüe (MA larg kway) Argentina, are listening for whispers from Saturn.
Each of the dishes is the size of an apartment building, allowing them to act like super-sensitive radio ears, picking up faint radio signals.
Though built by ESA, the European Space Agency, they have been called upon by NASA to help pick up the final messages from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. The final series of orbits is what’s being called the “Grand Finale” of the mission.
Cassini launched on its epic journey to Saturn in October of 1997. Since then it has worked hard to become one of the most successful space missions ever.
OK, the Cassini team here on the ground had a lot to do with the success. They are the ones who worked hard.
Anyway…
Cassini has discovered several new moons around Saturn, and revealed the age of the planet’s hauntingly beautiful rings, and much more. And let’s not forget, 12 years ago it dropped a probe onto it’s largest and most mysterious moon, Titan.
Titan has a dense atmosphere and would make a nifty planet if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s in orbit around Saturn and not the Sun.
After almost 20 years, Cassini is now on its final tour of Saturn before it runs out of maneuvering fuel. When that happens in September, the spacecraft will be steered into the planet, where it will burn up like a shooting star.
Until then, messages from Cassini will travel 1.6 billion kilometers through space to reach Earth, passing the orbits of Jupiter and Mars on the way.
The first signals sent by Cassini early this year, will pass through Saturn’s icy rings before reaching Earth. In doing so, they will collect information about what the rings are made of, and their shape.
In April Cassini’s orbit will actually take it inside the rings. It’ll pass between the rings and the planet. It’ll make 22 orbits like this before the mission ends.
Later in the year, signals will be bounced off Saturn’s cloud tops before traveling to Earth, like a radio echo.
These signals will carry data about Saturn’s atmosphere and rings, that will bring us closer to understanding the planet’s past and how it formed.
In addition, tiny wobbles in Cassini’s orbit due to the varying pull of gravity can be teased from the radio signals. This will help build our understanding of the planet’s interior, someplace we can’t reach any other way.
Hey, Here’s A Cool Fact:
For a long time we didn’t know whether Saturn’s rings formed during the birth of the Solar System or during the time of the dinosaurs, when possibly an ice moon was torn apart by the planet’s gravity.
Cassini confirmed that they are very, very old. They formed 4.5 billion years ago, along with the Sun and the other planets.
Thank you for listening to the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast!
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
=====================
The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. Audio post-production by Richard Drumm. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes. Please consider supporting the podcast with a few dollars (or Euros!). Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org. This year we will celebrate more discoveries and stories from the universe. Join us and share your story. Until tomorrow! Goodbye!