Word: pioneers
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...Pioneer reports an eleventh moon, more rings and a frigid Titan
Battered and pitted from its encounter with the rings of Saturn, the Pioneer 11 spacecraft headed into deep space last week, its mission accomplished. In its sweep past Saturn, it had provided the best look yet at the solar system's second largest planet, discovered what is probably an eleventh Saturnian moon and two more rings. It also confirmed the existence of another ring and a magnetic field, and dimmed hopes that Titan, Saturn's largest moon, might harbor some form of life...
...computer-enhanced Saturn pho tos taken by Pioneer were far better than any pictures of the planet shot through earthbound telescopes. More details of the famous rings were evident, and for the first time the bands formed by the yellow-and orange-hued clouds enveloping Sat urn could be clearly seen. Still, compared with the spectacular shots of Jupiter and its moons transmitted earlier this year by the twin Voyager spacecraft, the Pioneer pictures were disappointing. The difference is that Pioneer is equipped with a relatively crude camera-like instrument called an imaging photopolarimeter; the Voyagers have far more sophisticated...
...NASA's Ames Research Center, near San Francisco, scientists fretted in their seats. But as the pictures flashed onto the screen, the tension eased. After a journey of 6½ years, the small unmanned Pioneer 11 spacecraft was fast approaching Saturn, whose image was being sent back with more clarity than could be obtained by any earth-bound telescope. One especially intriguing view, taken by the robot from a distance of 3.2 million km (2 million miles), showed both the giant ringed planet, a huge gaseous sphere 815 times larger than earth, and its major moon, Titan, where scientists...
Controllers at NASA's Ames Research Center, near San Francisco, say that the probe could be destroyed as it swoops close to the outermost of Saturn's thin visible rings. But safe passage should provide a scientific bonus. After passing Saturn, Pioneer 11 will turn its electronic eyes on Titan, largest of Saturn's ten known moons, which seems to have a solid surface and methane atmosphere. The satellite could shelter organic molecules and-it is an extreme long shot-even primitive life forms. Since scientists have found no life on Venus, Mars or Jupiter, sighs Project...