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gion.
"Our instrument is like a very sophisticated
magnetic compass traveling through space," says Dr. Nick Achilleos, a science
planner and operations engineer working on the magnetometer. "Measuring
Saturn's internal magnetic field often shows signatures of the boundaries
which separate Saturn's magnetosphere from the solar wind -- these hold
information about how Saturn's magnetosphere is continually changing in
size and shape."
At first glance you might think big
deal Cassini has a dual compass right? This instrument is answering questions
like what is Saturn's rotation rate. Why is it's geographical north also
it's true magnetic north. The MAG was the first to detect the ice volcano
on Enceladus by detecting disturbances in it's magnetic field.
Continuing with the study the Magnetospheric
Imaging Instrument (MIMI) does remote imagining of the Saturn's magnetosphere.
This instrument images the plasma surrounding Saturn, it determines with
it's three sensors the charge and composition of these energetic ions and
electrons.
The MIMI's three instruments are the
low energy magnetospheric measurement system, the charge-energy-mass spectrometer
and the ion and neutral camera. The information collected from the MIMI
will tell us much about how Saturn's magnetosphere interacts with the solar
wind. It will study the dynamics of the atmosphere, rings, and moons, particular
the large moon Titan.
MIMI is the first instrument to ever
image a planetary magnetosphere and will give us first views of the hot
plasma in Saturn's huge storms as well as the Kilometric Radiation. The
ion and neutral camera will determine three dimensional distributions,
velocities and rough composition of magnetospheric and interplanetary ions.
There was a time not that long ago
we thought we understood why the planets were in the present order from
the Sun. Discovery of large worlds near their suns in other system has
made us rethink our theories. Saturn sits in an order that leaves it twice
as far from the Sun as Jupiter resulting in a colder denser atmosphere
that on the surface doesn't appear as active. The instruments on Cassini
are helping us look deep into these clouds in an effort to better understand
the dynamics of this system.
One last thing in case you haven't
been to the web site: The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative
project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras
were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center
is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens
mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov
. The Cassini imaging team homepage
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