Voyager 1 Encounters Saturn Contents Foreword 1 Introduction 3 The Planet 4 The Rings 12 The Satellites 20 A Glimpse Back 32 The Voyager Mission 36 MISSION OBJECTIVES 36 SPACECRAFT CHARACTERISTICS 36 SATURN ENCOUNTER 36 Scientific Highlights 38 SATURN 38 RINGS 38 NEW SATELLITES 38 INNER SATELLITES 38 TITAN 39 OUTER SATELLITES 39 MAGNETOSPHERE 39 Scientific Investigations 40 [Illustration: COVER: Saturn and two of its moons, Tethys (above) and Dione (below), were photographed by Voyager 1 on November 3, 1980, from 13 million kilometers (8 million miles). The shadow of Tethys is cast onto the cloudtops in the upper right corner of the image.] Foreword The pictures assembled in this publication are a part of the rich and varied harvest of information returned by Voyager 1 across nearly a billion miles of interplanetary space. These images are of great beauty as well as great scientific interest, serving to remind us of the awesome and breathtaking dimensions of the solar system we inhabit. Voyager is providing intriguing new information which should help us to understand how the Earth—and possibly the universe—was formed. Already there have been surprises and puzzles that paint a completely new picture of Saturn and its neighborhood, including the discovery of three new moons, startling information about Saturn’s rings, and observation of the unexpectedly complex structure of Saturn’s atmosphere and that of its largest moon, Titan. It will take years for scientists to assimilate completely the information which is cascading down from Voyager. What more will this marvel of technology have to tell us before it departs the solar system to travel endlessly among the stars?