Saturn : Exploring the Mystery of the Ringed Planet - Nicole Mortillaro

Saturn

Exploring the Mystery of the Ringed Planet

By: Nicole Mortillaro

Paperback | 1 January 2010

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Saturn is one of the five planets that star watchers can see with the naked eye. In 1997 the satellite Cassini-Huygens was launched with the sole purpose of studying Saturn and its moons and rings. Cassini is still in orbit, and in 2009 it witnessed Saturn's equinox firsthand, providing an entirely new perspective of the planet.

Cassini has generated enormous scientific interest with its accomplishments so far, including:

- Landing on Saturn's moon Titan - scientists now believe Titan possesses many parallels to Earth, including lakes, rivers, channels, dunes, rain, snow, clouds, mountains and possibly volcanoes

- Recording images of a storm raging across Saturn that has lightning 10,000 times more powerful than any lightning on Earth

- Discovering there may be as many as 10 million tiny moonlets in Saturn's rings

- Finding that a newly discovered moon embedded in the planet's G ring may actually be responsible for that ring; before this discovery, scientists believed it was the only ring without an associated moon

Featuring extraordinary photos selected from NASA resources on almost every page, Saturn examines the planet and its place in our universe with a special emphasis on the most recent discoveries of the Cassini probe. These are the closest and most detailed views of Saturn ever.

About the Author

Nicole Mortillaro is a passionate amateur astronomer and children's book editor. She lives near Toronto, Ontario.
Industry Reviews
'Saturn has been a source of fascination to both the professional and amateur astronomer for millennia - it's visible to the naked eye from Earth and its rings make it one of the more visually stunning worlds in our solar system. While Mortillaro's book includes mentions of the early Pioneer and Voyager missions that went by Saturn, the bulk of this lavishly illustrated book is devoted to the discoveries made since 1997 when the Cassini-Huygens satellite was launched. The purpose of Cassini-Iluygens was to study Saturn - the satellite is still in orbit around the planet - and its 62-and-counting moons. The photographs (courtesy of NASA) are breathtaking, revealing details the like of which have never been seen before. It is a book that gives its readers a sense of the beauty and immensity of what lies beyond the Earth's atmosphere.' - James D. Watts Jr. "Tulsa World" (12/19/2010)