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Article: Mission to Saturn's moon: a robotic spacecraft is preparing to explore Saturn's largest moon. What it discovers might change how we think about Earth.(earth science)
- Article from:
- SuperScience
- Article date:
- November 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Scholastic, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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What's as big as a school weighs 6,000 pounds? It's a spacecraft called Cassini-Huygens (ca-SEE-nee HOY-gens). Launched from Earth in 1997, this robot explorer has been snapping pictures of the planet Saturn since it arrived there this July. But in December, the Huygens probe will separate from Cassini to make a voyage of its own. Get ready for a trip to Titan--Saturn's largest moon.
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Cassini-Huygens is more than 800 million miles from Earth. Even so, it manages to gather valuable information and send it back to scientists on Earth. How is it able to work so far away from home? "We built [the spacecraft] to be very smart," says Linda ...