Cassini found that the rings are made up of chunks of ice and rocks ranging in size from smaller than a grain of sand to the “propeller” moonlets that cut gaps through the smaller particles.

A joint endeavor of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency), and the Italian space agency (ASI), Cassini was a sophisticated robotic spacecraft sent to study Saturn and its complex system of rings and moons in unprecedented detail. Cassini carried a probe called Huygens to the Saturn system.

Cassini revealed in great detail the true wonders of Saturn, a giant world ruled by raging storms and delicate harmonies of gravity. Cassini carried a passenger to the Saturn system, the European Huygens probe—the first human-made object to land on a world in the distant outer solar system.

For more than a decade, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shared the wonders of Saturn, its spectacular rings, and its family of icy moons. Cassini was a sophisticated robotic spacecraft sent to study Saturn and its complex system of rings and moons in unprecedented detail.

Cassini-Huygens was one of the most ambitious missions ever launched into space. Loaded with an array of powerful instruments and cameras, the spacecraft was capable of taking accurate measurements and detailed images in a variety of atmospheric conditions and light spectra.