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Controlled from 774 million miles away, NASA's Cassini spacecraft will swoop within 30 miles of the surface of one of Saturn's moons Wednesday, in an unprecedented flyby maneuver...
...discovery in 2005 happened during the third flyby of Cassini's original mission, a four-year exploration of Saturn, which concludes in June. Since then, scientists have been carefully planning the trajectory for additional maneuvers during an extended mission for the spacecraft, proposed to continue through June 2010. If all goes according to plan, Wednesday's will be the first of eight additional flybys...
...moon's plumes emit particles that are 90% water, in vaporized form, and contribute to the large rings around Saturn. "It's like the steam coming out of your kettle," Hansen-Koharcheck says. By analyzing the molecular structure of these particles, scientists hope to determine whether the vapor originates as ice or liquid, and whether that means there could be life in Enceladus's interior, beneath the surface...
Scientists hope that clearer data will reveal information about why the geysers formed. The leading theory is that Saturn's gravitational pull puts stresses on the moon, causing the fissures from which the plumes erupt. "Enceladus' orbit around Saturn is eccentric," Mitchell says. It's just enough off of circular that the effect of gravity on the moon is different from one point to another, and different from the planet's other moons. "That difference in the tug would be enough to cause the body to distort differently as it goes around Saturn." The friction created when sides...
...account for plant closings and layoffs, part of the old-line leader's attempts to revitalize the auto giant during an era defined by a growing threat from Japanese cars. Smith was hailed by loyalists as a modernizer, but his massive downsizing and other efforts, including launching the Saturn division, failed in the end, and GM, which in the early '80s dominated the U.S. market at 46%, held just 35% by 1990. Smith...