Timeline Saturn
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Saturn's Rings: http://www.solarviews.com/eng/saturnbg.htm
The planet is the 6th from the
Sun and is named for the father of Jupiter in Roman mythology. Its
day
is 10 hours and 39 minutes, and its year is 29.5 Earth years. The
gaseous planet revolves at 22,000 miles per hour at its equator.
   (NH, 3/97, p.70)(SFEC, 10/5/97, Z1
p.4)Â Â Â
If the Sun were a pumpkin one foot in diameter, Saturn would be a
peach
about 1025 feet away.
   (SFEC, 4/30/00, Par p.9)
1226Â Â Â
   Mar 4, Jupiter and Saturn appeared as one bright
planet in the night sky. This did not happen again until Dec 21,
2020.
   (https://tinyurl.com/y74xupnv)  Â
(NY Times, 12/20/20)
1345Â Â Â Â Â Â Mar 20, A conjunction of
Saturn, Jupiter and Mars was thought to be the "cause of plague
epidemic."
   (MC, 3/20/02)
1610Â Â Â Â Â Â Galileo observed Saturn
and noted that it appeared to be triple-bodied.
   (NH, 10/1/04, p.28)
1623Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Jul 16, A
conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn was virtually impossible to see on
Earth because of its apparent position near the sun.
   (https://tinyurl.com/y74xupnv)
1625Â Â Â Â Â Â Gian Domenico Cassini was
born in Italy. He was an astrologer and then became an astronomer
and was known in France as Jean-Dominique Cassini. At the Paris
observatory he discovered the wide gap in the rings of Saturn now
called the Cassini division, as well as four of the planet’s moons.
   (SFEC, 10/5/97, Z1 p.4)
1655Â Â Â Â Â Â Mar 25, Christiaan
Huygens, Dutch inventor and astronomer, discovered Titan, Saturn's
largest satellite.
   (www.xs4all.nl/~carlkop/huyglens.html)
1656Â Â Â Â Â Â Christiaan Huygens
interpreted Saturn’s “ears” as a simple flat ring.
   (NH, 10/1/04, p.29)
1659Â Â Â Â Â Â Christiaan Huygens
published “Systema Saturnium,” his observations on Saturn.
   (NH, 10/1/04, p.29)
1676Â Â Â Â Â Â Jean-Domenique Cassini,
director of the Paris Observatory, reported that there were 2 rings
around Saturn separated by a gap that came to be called the Cassini
Division.
   (NH, 10/1/04, p.29)
1848Â Â Â Â Â Â Sep 19, Hyperion, a moon
of Saturn, was discovered by Bond (US) & Lassell (England).
   (MC, 9/19/01)
1856Â Â Â Â Â Â James Maxwell deduced that
the Saturn rings cannot be solid and must be made of "an indefinite
number of unconnected particles".
   (www.solarviews.com/eng/saturnbg.htm)
1899Â Â Â Â Â Â Mar 18, Phoebe, a moon of
Saturn, was discovered by Pickering.
   (MC, 3/18/02)
1962Â Â Â Â Â Â Feb 5, Sun, Moon, Mercury,
Venus, Mars, Jupiter & Saturn aligned within a 16 degree arc.
   (MC, 2/5/02)
1977Â Â Â Â Â Â Aug 20, The United States
launched Voyager 2, an unmanned spacecraft carrying a 12-inch copper
phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages,
samples of music and sounds of nature. It was scheduled to pass
Jupiter and Saturn.
   (V.D.-H.K.p.388)(MofE, 1978, p.41)(AP,
8/20/97)(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1979Â Â Â Â Â Â Sep 1, Pioneer 11 made the
1st fly-by of Saturn and discovered new moon rings. Ring F of Saturn
was discovered by Lonny Baker at NASA's Ames Research Center from
data sent by Pioneer 11.
   (Ind, 7/27/99,
p.1A)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_11)
1980Â Â Â Â Â Â Nov 12, The US space probe
Voyager 1 came within 77,000 miles of Saturn.
   (AP,
11/12/97)(http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/science/saturn.html)
1981Â Â Â Â Â Â Aug 25, The US spacecraft
Voyager 2 came within 63,000 miles of Saturn's cloud cover, sending
back pictures and data about the ringed planet and its moons.
   (AP,
8/25/97)(http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/science/planetary.html)
1989Â Â Â Â Â Â Nov 12, A triple
conjunction of Neptune and Saturn took place.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_conjunction)
1997Â Â Â Â Â Â Oct 13, The Cassini
spacecraft was scheduled to be launched aboard a Titan rocket from
Cape Canaveral for a trip to end in 2004 at Saturn. It will carry
the Huygens probe to be deployed on the Saturn moon Titan.
   (SFEC, 10/5/97, Z1 p.1)
1997Â Â Â Â Â Â Oct 15, NASA's
plutonium-powered Cassini spacecraft rocketed flawlessly toward
Saturn. The $3.3 billion Cassini-Huygens Mission was scheduled to
arrive on July 1, 2004.
   (SFC,10/16/97, p.A3)(AP, 10/15/98)(SSFC, 6/27/04,
p.A1)
1998Â Â Â Â Â Â Apr 8, It was reported
that Europe’s Infrared Space Observatory discovered water around
stars and planets. Water vapor in the atmosphere of Titan was
reported.
   (SFC, 4/898, p.A8)
2004Â Â Â Â Â Â Jun 30, The Cassini probe
entered Saturn’s orbit for 4 years of explorations. Its 4-year
mission included a close approach to Saturn’s 3rd moon Iapetus.
   (Econ, 4/24/04, p.83)(WSJ, 7/1/04, p.A1)
2004Â Â Â Â Â Â Jul 1, The Cassini
spacecraft sent back photographs of Saturn's shimmering rings.
   (AP, 7/1/05)
2004Â Â Â Â Â Â Aug 16, Astronomers
reported the discovery of 2 additional moons orbiting Saturn,
bringing the total to 33.
   (SFC, 8/17/04, p.A8)
2004Â Â Â Â Â Â Oct 26, Spacecraft Cassini
flew within 745 miles of Titan providing scientists with new images
of the Saturn largest moon.
   (SFC, 10/27/04, p.A4)
2004Â Â Â Â Â Â Nov 6, The Cassini
spacecraft was scheduled to launch its Huygens probe onto Titan.
[see Dec 24]
   (SFEC, 10/5/97, Z1 p.4)
2004Â Â Â Â Â Â Dec 24, The Huygens space
probe was fired from the international Cassini spacecraft into a
successful free fall from Saturn’s orbit to its moon, Titan.
   (SFC, 12/25/04, p.A1)(AP, 12/24/05)
2005Â Â Â Â Â Â Jan 13, The European-built
space probe Huygens entered the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon,
Titan.
   (Reuters, 1/14/05)
2005Â Â Â Â Â Â Jan 14, The European space
probe Huygens landed on Saturn's moon Titan, sending back images of
what scientists were calling the strangest landscape in the solar
system. Pictures showed a pale orange surface covered by a thin haze
of methane and what appears to be a methane sea complete with
islands and a mist-shrouded coastline.
   (AP,
1/15/05)(http://huygens.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=36280)
2005Â Â Â Â Â Â The Cassini spacecraft
spotted plumes of water vapor shooting into space from the southern
pole of Enceladus, one of the moons of Saturn.
   (Econ, 9/9/17, p.76)
2007Â Â Â Â Â Â Mar 1, NASA said the
Cassini spacecraft has snapped never-before-seen images of Saturn
showing the planet from perspectives above and below its ring
system.
   (Reuters, 3/1/07)
2008Â Â Â Â Â Â Mar 26, Scientists said
the basic ingredients for life: warmth, water and organic chemicals,
are in place on Saturn's small moon Enceladus, in detailing the
content of huge plumes erupting off its surface.
   (Reuters, 3/26/08)
2009Â Â Â Â Â Â Jun 25, Scientists
reported new evidence that one of Saturn's moons, Enceladus, has an
ocean beneath its surface.
   (AP, 6/25/09)
2009Â Â Â Â Â Â Oct 6, NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said the Spitzer Space Telescope has
discovered the biggest but never-before-seen ring around the planet
Saturn. The diffuse ring doesn't reflect much visible light and is
so huge it would take 1 billion Earths to fill it.
   (AP, 10/6/09)
2009Â Â Â Â Â Â Oct 7, Pedro Elias
Zadunaisky (b.1917), Argentine astronomer and mathematician, died.
His calculations helped determine the orbit of Saturn's outermost
moon, Phoebe, as well as Halley's Comet.
   (AP, 10/7/09)
2015Â Â Â Â Â Â Mar 11, Scientists
reported that evidence from the Cassini spacecraft has indicated
there might be hot springs under the ice of Enceladus, one of the
moons of Saturn.
   (SFC, 3/12/15, p.A3)
2017Â Â Â Â Â Â Apr 27, NASA said its
unmanned Cassini spacecraft has survived its plunge between the
rings of Saturn and, after briefly going dark for the flyby, is
communicating again with Earth.
   (AP, 4/27/17)
2017Â Â Â Â Â Â Sep 15, NASA’s Cassini
spacecraft, launched in 1997, burned up in a fiery dive into Saturn,
where it had been circling since 2004.
   (SFC, 9/16/17 p.A8)
2019Â Â Â Â Â Â Oct 7, The Carnegie
Institute for Science announced that 20 new moons have been found
around Saturn, giving the ringed planet a total of 82. This beat
Jupiter with its 79 moons.
   (SFC, 10/9/19, p.A4)
2020Â Â Â Â Â Â Dec 21, Jupiter and Saturn
appeared as one bright planet in the night sky. The last time they
came this visibly close to each other was in the year 1226.
   (NY Times, 12/20/20)
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Subject = Saturn
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