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Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:03,390 --> 00:00:07,420 For 13 years, the Cassini spacecraft explored 2 00:00:07,420 --> 00:00:12,860 astounding worlds... Saturn and its moons. 3 00:00:12,860 --> 00:00:16,560 We discovered things we never imagined. 4 00:00:16,570 --> 00:00:19,670 All of these strange, bizarre landscapes... 5 00:00:19,670 --> 00:00:22,740 Geysers erupting out of moons. 6 00:00:22,740 --> 00:00:25,840 We were so stunned by the images. 7 00:00:25,840 --> 00:00:28,840 I mean, people were just going around in shock. 8 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:40,690 But Cassini started running out of fuel. 9 00:00:40,690 --> 00:00:44,560 Scientists at NASA had to decide what to do next, 10 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:48,300 and the answer was actually pretty spectacular. 11 00:00:48,300 --> 00:00:53,570 Cassini goes where no spacecraft has gone before... 12 00:00:53,570 --> 00:01:00,740 A death flight revealing the deepest secrets of Saturn. 13 00:01:00,740 --> 00:01:03,810 Captions by Vitac... www.Vitac.Com 14 00:01:03,810 --> 00:01:06,820 captions paid for by discovery communications 15 00:01:19,630 --> 00:01:23,600 Out beyond Jupiter lies Saturn, 16 00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:27,540 a planet circled by multiple moons and rings. 17 00:01:27,540 --> 00:01:31,770 It's like a miniature Solar system. 18 00:01:31,780 --> 00:01:34,580 Imagine having a mission with the power, the instruments, 19 00:01:34,580 --> 00:01:38,980 the capability to explore all aspects of the Saturn system. 20 00:01:38,980 --> 00:01:42,180 That mission was Cassini. 21 00:01:50,090 --> 00:01:52,330 It would become our eyes and ears 22 00:01:52,330 --> 00:01:56,530 in the Saturnian system for over 13 years. 23 00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:05,770 But by September 2017, Cassini was almost out of fuel. 24 00:02:05,780 --> 00:02:07,710 Cassini has been orbiting Saturn 25 00:02:07,710 --> 00:02:11,350 and studying the Saturn system for over a decade. 26 00:02:11,350 --> 00:02:13,820 End the mission... we're going to lose control soon, 27 00:02:13,820 --> 00:02:16,580 so rather than let it just go derelict, 28 00:02:16,590 --> 00:02:18,650 we headed into Saturn. 29 00:02:18,660 --> 00:02:21,390 Go out with a bang. 30 00:02:21,390 --> 00:02:24,690 The Cassini team goes for broke. 31 00:02:24,690 --> 00:02:30,100 They program the probe to head straight for the planet. 32 00:02:30,100 --> 00:02:32,470 How cool is it to sort of sacrifice 33 00:02:32,470 --> 00:02:33,970 everything you've got to sort of learn 34 00:02:33,970 --> 00:02:37,570 your last bit of information, and then crash and burn? 35 00:02:37,570 --> 00:02:41,540 We are in the atmosphere. 36 00:02:41,550 --> 00:02:43,880 As Cassini was careening toward its death, 37 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:46,350 it still had instruments that continued to work, 38 00:02:46,350 --> 00:02:48,150 and as each instrument died, 39 00:02:48,150 --> 00:02:52,120 there was still a set sending back data and information. 40 00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:54,290 Cassini wasn't designed to plunge 41 00:02:54,290 --> 00:02:56,390 through Saturn�s atmosphere. 42 00:02:56,390 --> 00:03:01,060 No one knew how long it would last before burning up. 43 00:03:08,940 --> 00:03:10,670 I remember sitting in a room 44 00:03:10,670 --> 00:03:12,770 with my colleagues on Cassini 45 00:03:12,780 --> 00:03:14,640 and watching that radio signal, 46 00:03:14,640 --> 00:03:18,080 that sharp green peak that told us Cassini 47 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:20,620 was still linked to the Earth. 48 00:03:20,620 --> 00:03:23,480 We could monitor the atmosphere as we flew into it, 49 00:03:23,490 --> 00:03:26,820 and right up until the last, it was sending back science. 50 00:03:26,820 --> 00:03:30,060 I was really impressed by how long Cassini lasted 51 00:03:30,060 --> 00:03:32,260 in the Saturn atmosphere. 52 00:03:32,260 --> 00:03:35,360 I mean, go NASA engineering. 53 00:03:35,370 --> 00:03:37,570 As Cassini plummeted down 54 00:03:37,570 --> 00:03:40,840 at 77,000 miles an hour, 55 00:03:40,840 --> 00:03:43,370 it was bombarded by gas molecules 56 00:03:43,370 --> 00:03:45,040 in Saturn�s atmosphere. 57 00:03:49,450 --> 00:03:52,650 Friction started tearing Cassini apart 58 00:03:52,650 --> 00:03:55,650 as it struggled to maintain contact. 59 00:04:00,260 --> 00:04:02,490 As the antenna turned away, 60 00:04:02,490 --> 00:04:04,390 we actually saw a secondary little peak, 61 00:04:04,390 --> 00:04:07,700 and we thought, "okay, Cassini. Hang in there. Keep fighting." 62 00:04:07,700 --> 00:04:12,670 and then just that green flatline. 63 00:04:12,670 --> 00:04:16,470 Just heard the signal from the spacecraft is gone, 64 00:04:16,470 --> 00:04:20,410 and in the next 45 seconds, so will be the spacecraft. 65 00:04:20,410 --> 00:04:23,240 Cassini's heartbeat was gone, 66 00:04:23,250 --> 00:04:27,250 and we knew the mission had ended. 67 00:04:27,250 --> 00:04:30,550 It just vaporized in the Saturnian atmosphere, 68 00:04:30,550 --> 00:04:34,760 and so it has become a part of Saturn itself. 69 00:04:45,600 --> 00:04:47,670 Cassini's death plunge 70 00:04:47,670 --> 00:04:51,910 was the last of a series of daring dives. 71 00:04:51,910 --> 00:04:53,570 Prior to ending Cassini's mission 72 00:04:53,580 --> 00:04:55,940 by sending it into Saturn�s atmosphere, 73 00:04:55,950 --> 00:04:58,510 NASA�s engineers and scientists came up with an idea... 74 00:04:58,520 --> 00:05:01,420 "let's do dives into the region 75 00:05:01,420 --> 00:05:04,020 between the tops of Saturn�s clouds 76 00:05:04,020 --> 00:05:08,660 and the innermost area of Saturn�s rings. 77 00:05:08,660 --> 00:05:11,930 Beginning in April of 2017, 78 00:05:11,930 --> 00:05:17,570 Cassini ventured between Saturn and its rings 22 times. 79 00:05:17,570 --> 00:05:20,670 Scientists called it the grand finale. 80 00:05:22,970 --> 00:05:26,640 On these dives, Cassini got closest to Saturn�s cloud tops 81 00:05:26,640 --> 00:05:29,440 than any spacecraft ever had before. 82 00:05:32,150 --> 00:05:36,650 Saturn is an enormous ball of hydrogen and helium, 83 00:05:36,650 --> 00:05:39,550 a gas giant. 84 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:42,590 Fundamentally, it's a really very different kind of planet 85 00:05:42,590 --> 00:05:45,430 than we're used to in our everyday lives. 86 00:05:45,430 --> 00:05:50,370 Cassini snaps close-ups of the planet's gaseous surface. 87 00:05:50,370 --> 00:05:54,800 The pictures reveal a turbulent and stormy world. 88 00:05:54,800 --> 00:05:57,770 We think of some storms on Earth as being particularly violent. 89 00:05:57,770 --> 00:05:58,910 If you've ever been in a hurricane, 90 00:05:58,910 --> 00:06:00,780 it's not a fun place to be, 91 00:06:00,780 --> 00:06:03,380 but the storms on Saturn, the wind patterns on Saturn, 92 00:06:03,380 --> 00:06:07,720 can make that look like a mere breeze in comparison. 93 00:06:07,720 --> 00:06:11,490 On Saturn, one storms stands out. 94 00:06:11,490 --> 00:06:15,620 It's location is marked by a distinct shape. 95 00:06:15,630 --> 00:06:17,860 One of the really weird things is that 96 00:06:17,860 --> 00:06:20,090 whereas the bands go around Saturn, 97 00:06:20,100 --> 00:06:22,660 they're all circular until you get to the pole, 98 00:06:22,670 --> 00:06:26,130 and then there's a hexagonal band up there. 99 00:06:26,140 --> 00:06:28,840 No one expected that. 100 00:06:28,840 --> 00:06:30,570 During its lifetime, 101 00:06:30,570 --> 00:06:35,080 Cassini took multiple images of the hexagon. 102 00:06:35,080 --> 00:06:38,210 Whenever we posted an image of the hexagon, 103 00:06:38,210 --> 00:06:41,150 the hits to the website went through the roof. 104 00:06:41,150 --> 00:06:44,350 I think people thought it was so mysterious. 105 00:06:44,350 --> 00:06:46,450 When I first saw this, I was blown away. 106 00:06:46,460 --> 00:06:49,160 I mean, who could imagine having something this regular, 107 00:06:49,160 --> 00:06:51,760 almost geometric, on the atmosphere of a planet? 108 00:06:51,760 --> 00:06:54,330 It's really just phenomenal. 109 00:06:54,330 --> 00:07:00,300 In 2018, Cassini data reveals this hexagonal storm 110 00:07:00,300 --> 00:07:05,210 could be a towering structure hundreds of miles in height. 111 00:07:05,210 --> 00:07:06,840 It's this gigantic structure. 112 00:07:06,840 --> 00:07:09,110 It's many thousands of miles across, 113 00:07:09,110 --> 00:07:11,110 and right in the center, right at the pole, 114 00:07:11,110 --> 00:07:12,950 is this sort of permanent vortex, 115 00:07:12,950 --> 00:07:14,320 a permanent hurricane. 116 00:07:14,320 --> 00:07:16,720 So, it's kind of a creepy eye-like thing 117 00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:18,620 staring back at us. 118 00:07:18,620 --> 00:07:23,830 Each side of the hexagon is as wide as the Earth. 119 00:07:23,830 --> 00:07:25,830 It seems artificial. 120 00:07:25,830 --> 00:07:28,760 How do you get a hexagon-shaped storm 121 00:07:28,770 --> 00:07:31,330 or cloud structure on Saturn? 122 00:07:37,040 --> 00:07:40,170 Scientists think that Saturn�s spin 123 00:07:40,180 --> 00:07:45,580 interacts with air currents to create this symmetrical shape. 124 00:07:45,580 --> 00:07:50,050 But they don't know why it's lasted for decades. 125 00:07:50,050 --> 00:07:51,550 That's the puzzle. 126 00:07:51,550 --> 00:07:53,320 How can you get a six-sided jet stream 127 00:07:53,320 --> 00:07:57,490 that's stable for so long? 128 00:07:57,490 --> 00:08:01,500 But while the hexagon shape is stable, 129 00:08:01,500 --> 00:08:04,570 the color has altered. 130 00:08:04,570 --> 00:08:10,940 Over four years, it changed from mostly blue to golden brown. 131 00:08:10,940 --> 00:08:15,310 The transformation is linked to Saturn�s seasons. 132 00:08:18,650 --> 00:08:21,950 The seasons on Saturn are caused by the same thing on Earth. 133 00:08:21,950 --> 00:08:23,920 It's the tilt of the planet, 134 00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:25,920 and so as Saturn is going around the sun 135 00:08:25,920 --> 00:08:28,960 and it's north pole is tipping toward the sun, 136 00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:31,460 you start to get more light up there. 137 00:08:31,460 --> 00:08:34,900 This sunlight interacts with the atmosphere, 138 00:08:34,900 --> 00:08:39,470 producing suspended particles called aerosols. 139 00:08:39,470 --> 00:08:41,640 It actually looks a lot like smog. 140 00:08:41,640 --> 00:08:43,340 It turns things more orange, 141 00:08:43,340 --> 00:08:47,840 so over time the hexagon went from blue to orange. 142 00:08:47,840 --> 00:08:49,810 The color change happened 143 00:08:49,810 --> 00:08:53,510 during one of Saturn�s northern hemisphere summers, 144 00:08:53,520 --> 00:08:56,920 but mysteriously, the very center of the hexagon 145 00:08:56,920 --> 00:08:59,320 remained blue. 146 00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:01,290 Now, this could have been for two reasons. 147 00:09:01,290 --> 00:09:03,160 Maybe the haze never formed in the eye 148 00:09:03,160 --> 00:09:05,330 because the eye was shielded from the sun, 149 00:09:05,330 --> 00:09:08,130 and the sun is responsible for creating the brownish haze 150 00:09:08,130 --> 00:09:10,160 that we see on Saturn. 151 00:09:10,170 --> 00:09:13,200 Another reason is maybe the actual vortex 152 00:09:13,200 --> 00:09:14,970 is sucking the haze down. 153 00:09:14,970 --> 00:09:17,140 Maybe there's something like the eye of a hurricane. 154 00:09:17,140 --> 00:09:18,570 There's haze that forms over it, 155 00:09:18,580 --> 00:09:20,540 but it gets sucked down into the eye. 156 00:09:26,850 --> 00:09:28,980 But the storms on Saturn 157 00:09:28,990 --> 00:09:33,020 aren't the only extraordinary thing about the weather. 158 00:09:33,020 --> 00:09:38,460 When Cassini dives through the rings, it discovers rain, 159 00:09:38,460 --> 00:09:43,530 rain falling onto the planet from space. 160 00:10:00,820 --> 00:10:07,050 April 2017, Cassini embarked on its grand finale, 161 00:10:07,060 --> 00:10:10,760 following a daring new path. 162 00:10:10,760 --> 00:10:15,000 We decided to dive in between the rings of the planet, 163 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:19,100 to go to a place no spacecraft had ever flown before 164 00:10:19,100 --> 00:10:21,470 and make a unique set of measurements. 165 00:10:21,470 --> 00:10:25,570 It was uncharted territory. 166 00:10:25,580 --> 00:10:28,010 They didn't know exactly what they were going to find. 167 00:10:28,010 --> 00:10:30,080 There could be stuff there that could have destroyed 168 00:10:30,080 --> 00:10:32,910 the Cassini spacecraft. 169 00:10:32,920 --> 00:10:35,620 Instead, Cassini encountered 170 00:10:35,620 --> 00:10:41,160 something totally unexpected... rain. 171 00:10:49,370 --> 00:10:51,700 On Earth it rains quite a bit. 172 00:10:51,700 --> 00:10:53,370 We're getting that rain from rain clouds 173 00:10:53,370 --> 00:10:55,900 which are basically just a few miles up. 174 00:10:55,910 --> 00:10:59,170 On Saturn it also rains, but it turns out it's raining 175 00:10:59,180 --> 00:11:01,940 onto the top of the upper atmosphere, 176 00:11:01,940 --> 00:11:05,910 and that rain is coming from space. 177 00:11:05,920 --> 00:11:10,650 In 2018, Cassini data revealed the colossal weight 178 00:11:10,650 --> 00:11:13,820 of the downpour. 179 00:11:13,820 --> 00:11:16,620 Icy-grained rain hits Saturn 180 00:11:16,630 --> 00:11:19,090 at a rate of several tons per second. 181 00:11:22,530 --> 00:11:24,670 It's completely unlike anything we've ever seen. 182 00:11:24,670 --> 00:11:26,800 Suddenly we've discovered rain at Saturn, 183 00:11:26,800 --> 00:11:28,670 but there aren't any rain clouds. 184 00:11:28,670 --> 00:11:30,440 Where was it coming from? 185 00:11:35,750 --> 00:11:38,880 The answer is Saturn�s rings. 186 00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:42,850 The first thing you think of 187 00:11:42,850 --> 00:11:44,550 when you hear the word Saturn is the rings. 188 00:11:44,550 --> 00:11:46,520 They're the most dramatic and unique aspect 189 00:11:46,520 --> 00:11:48,190 of that planet. 190 00:11:50,690 --> 00:11:54,900 From afar, Saturn�s rings look like this one whole structure, 191 00:11:54,900 --> 00:11:58,530 but when you look up close it's actually a bunch of ice crystals 192 00:11:58,530 --> 00:12:02,970 and ice rocks that make Saturn�s rings. 193 00:12:02,970 --> 00:12:07,240 The size of the ring material ranges from dust grains 194 00:12:07,240 --> 00:12:09,910 to boulders to houses. 195 00:12:16,520 --> 00:12:20,450 Saturn�s rings are well above the atmosphere of Saturn. 196 00:12:20,460 --> 00:12:22,290 They're way out in space. 197 00:12:22,290 --> 00:12:25,130 And under normal circumstances those particles of ice 198 00:12:25,130 --> 00:12:28,560 making up the rings would just orbit Saturn forever, 199 00:12:28,560 --> 00:12:30,830 but things are a little bit weird. 200 00:12:33,940 --> 00:12:38,040 Something is making these orbiting ice particles 201 00:12:38,040 --> 00:12:41,740 fall inward as a kind of cosmic hail. 202 00:12:44,410 --> 00:12:47,280 Material is dripping inwards from the rings 203 00:12:47,280 --> 00:12:50,580 and falling into the clouds of Saturn. 204 00:12:50,590 --> 00:12:52,750 It's like a rain with no rain cloud. 205 00:12:52,760 --> 00:12:56,320 A cosmic rain trickling in and falling down. 206 00:12:58,430 --> 00:13:00,690 Cassini discovers the rain 207 00:13:00,700 --> 00:13:04,130 is a mix of different kinds of ice particles, 208 00:13:04,130 --> 00:13:08,970 but doesn't reveal why they actually rain down. 209 00:13:08,970 --> 00:13:13,040 Then the researchers realized the ice grains 210 00:13:13,040 --> 00:13:15,640 were statically charged. 211 00:13:15,650 --> 00:13:17,550 Ultraviolet light from the sun, for example, 212 00:13:17,550 --> 00:13:19,250 can blow off an electron, 213 00:13:19,250 --> 00:13:21,850 and that gives these particles a charge, 214 00:13:21,850 --> 00:13:23,780 just like rubbing a balloon on your hair 215 00:13:23,790 --> 00:13:26,450 makes it stick to a wall because of the static charge. 216 00:13:29,090 --> 00:13:32,130 Well, if you have particles that are like that, 217 00:13:32,130 --> 00:13:34,500 they can be affected by magnetism, 218 00:13:34,500 --> 00:13:38,330 and Saturn has a very strong magnetic field. 219 00:13:38,330 --> 00:13:40,800 Earth's magnetic field springs 220 00:13:40,800 --> 00:13:44,740 from it's spinning, molten-iron core. 221 00:13:44,740 --> 00:13:48,280 Although Saturn probably has a rocky center, 222 00:13:48,280 --> 00:13:52,710 it's mostly a giant ball of hydrogen and helium, 223 00:13:52,720 --> 00:13:55,720 but deep in its interior, scientists think something 224 00:13:55,720 --> 00:13:59,920 much more exotic is going on. 225 00:13:59,920 --> 00:14:01,590 We don't have enough data 226 00:14:01,590 --> 00:14:04,430 to know exactly what's going on in Saturn�s interior, 227 00:14:04,430 --> 00:14:06,360 but we do know the broad strokes. 228 00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:08,830 Within Saturn�s interior, 229 00:14:08,830 --> 00:14:12,470 extreme pressures and temperatures force hydrogen 230 00:14:12,470 --> 00:14:14,840 to stop acting like a gas, 231 00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:19,440 turning it into spinning liquid-metallic hydrogen. 232 00:14:19,440 --> 00:14:21,310 You've got this band of electrons 233 00:14:21,310 --> 00:14:23,540 that can just wander freely through that fluid, 234 00:14:23,550 --> 00:14:27,450 so in that way, liquid hydrogen under extreme pressure 235 00:14:27,450 --> 00:14:30,220 can act like a metal. 236 00:14:30,220 --> 00:14:32,990 The magnetic field generated 237 00:14:32,990 --> 00:14:36,260 by the spinning metallic-hydrogen outer core 238 00:14:36,260 --> 00:14:39,790 pulls the ice particles from the rings. 239 00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:41,630 These charged ice particles 240 00:14:41,630 --> 00:14:44,200 are then drawn in by Saturn�s field. 241 00:14:44,200 --> 00:14:46,100 They follow the magnetic field lines 242 00:14:46,100 --> 00:14:51,740 and rain down onto the atmosphere of Saturn. 243 00:14:51,740 --> 00:14:55,140 Cassini had revealed several tons of material 244 00:14:55,140 --> 00:14:57,880 is raining down on Saturn every second, 245 00:14:57,880 --> 00:15:01,080 but how much stuff is actually in the rings? 246 00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:05,490 Again, Cassini provides the answer. 247 00:15:05,490 --> 00:15:07,020 In the final days of Cassini, 248 00:15:07,020 --> 00:15:10,420 we actually flew in between the planet Saturn and the rings, 249 00:15:10,430 --> 00:15:13,030 and the gravity data was able to separate out 250 00:15:13,030 --> 00:15:15,030 how much mass is coming from the planet 251 00:15:15,030 --> 00:15:17,230 and how much is coming from the rings, 252 00:15:17,230 --> 00:15:18,470 and the surprise was the rings 253 00:15:18,470 --> 00:15:20,530 are actually not very massive at all. 254 00:15:22,870 --> 00:15:25,010 Even though they cover an area 255 00:15:25,010 --> 00:15:27,810 as big as the moon's orbit around Earth, 256 00:15:27,810 --> 00:15:31,410 Saturn�s rings are 100,000 times less massive 257 00:15:31,410 --> 00:15:34,080 than our own small planet. 258 00:15:36,520 --> 00:15:38,620 They're lighter than we thought. 259 00:15:38,620 --> 00:15:41,660 There's not as much material there. 260 00:15:41,660 --> 00:15:47,700 The mass of the rings is a valuable clue about their age. 261 00:15:47,700 --> 00:15:50,060 A more massive ring can hold itself together 262 00:15:50,070 --> 00:15:52,930 for much longer than a less massive ring, 263 00:15:52,940 --> 00:15:56,400 so if there's not a lot of stuff there, it must be younger. 264 00:15:59,210 --> 00:16:03,240 So, how long have Saturn�s rings been in place, 265 00:16:03,250 --> 00:16:06,280 and what is keeping them there? 266 00:16:06,280 --> 00:16:08,980 It's something that I don't even think I could have imagined 267 00:16:08,990 --> 00:16:10,650 if I tried. 268 00:16:30,040 --> 00:16:32,470 As Cassini orbited Saturn, 269 00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:36,440 it revealed incredible insights into the planet's rings. 270 00:16:43,820 --> 00:16:46,520 The photos that came from Cassini of the rings 271 00:16:46,520 --> 00:16:50,260 are unlike anything that I could ever imagine. 272 00:16:50,260 --> 00:16:53,490 If I was alien visiting our Solar system, 273 00:16:53,500 --> 00:16:55,630 I don't know what would stand out to me more, 274 00:16:55,630 --> 00:17:00,470 the blue marble or Saturn and its amazing rings. 275 00:17:00,470 --> 00:17:03,040 One of the biggest questions about the rings 276 00:17:03,040 --> 00:17:04,970 is how old are they. 277 00:17:04,970 --> 00:17:06,740 Could something like that really have existed 278 00:17:06,740 --> 00:17:08,410 from the beginning of the Solar system, 279 00:17:08,410 --> 00:17:12,450 or is it relatively recent? 280 00:17:12,450 --> 00:17:16,650 Cassini provided an answer. 281 00:17:16,650 --> 00:17:19,890 The rings could be as young as only 100 million years old. 282 00:17:19,890 --> 00:17:22,520 A couple of clues... The low mass and the fact 283 00:17:22,530 --> 00:17:23,860 that they're so bright and icy 284 00:17:23,860 --> 00:17:25,990 that it hasn't had time to get polluted 285 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:29,000 from all the micrometeoroids and darkened 286 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:33,000 over a long time like the age of the Solar system. 287 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:34,870 So, the amazing thing is 288 00:17:34,870 --> 00:17:36,140 that, you know, if you were on Earth 289 00:17:36,140 --> 00:17:37,740 about the time of the dinosaurs, 290 00:17:37,740 --> 00:17:40,740 there might have been a Saturn in the sky with no rings. 291 00:17:44,650 --> 00:17:47,450 So, if the rings didn't form 292 00:17:47,450 --> 00:17:51,320 at the same time as Saturn, how did they form, 293 00:17:51,320 --> 00:17:53,390 and what's keeping them in place? 294 00:18:00,530 --> 00:18:03,060 To form the rings 100 million years ago, 295 00:18:03,070 --> 00:18:04,500 you need to find an object... 296 00:18:04,500 --> 00:18:07,270 Maybe a comet or a moon gets too close to Saturn. 297 00:18:07,270 --> 00:18:10,900 Saturn's gravity tears it apart and forms the rings. 298 00:18:13,780 --> 00:18:16,180 As the object is torn apart, 299 00:18:16,180 --> 00:18:21,580 the pieces spread out around Saturn to form the rings. 300 00:18:21,580 --> 00:18:27,490 They keep colliding, breaking into smaller and smaller pieces. 301 00:18:27,490 --> 00:18:30,360 Like pebbles on a beach, subsequent jostling 302 00:18:30,360 --> 00:18:32,190 and self collisions between each other 303 00:18:32,190 --> 00:18:33,930 will take the sharp edges off of them 304 00:18:33,930 --> 00:18:35,660 creating rounded particles. 305 00:18:38,730 --> 00:18:41,600 From a distance, Saturn�s rings appear 306 00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:45,510 incredibly thin and almost perfectly flat, 307 00:18:45,510 --> 00:18:49,440 but appearances can be deceptive. 308 00:18:49,450 --> 00:18:51,610 One of our results from Cassini 309 00:18:51,610 --> 00:18:54,080 as it took its final plunge into Saturn 310 00:18:54,080 --> 00:18:56,120 was as we flew past those rings, 311 00:18:56,120 --> 00:19:01,150 we noticed that the rings were actually not a uniform density. 312 00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:03,020 That's something that nobody had seen. 313 00:19:03,030 --> 00:19:04,730 I mean, you had to get really close to see that, 314 00:19:04,730 --> 00:19:07,090 and it wasn't expected. 315 00:19:07,100 --> 00:19:09,060 I'm a ring scientist, 316 00:19:09,060 --> 00:19:11,430 and I just love seeing that detail 317 00:19:11,430 --> 00:19:12,830 and trying to figure out 318 00:19:12,840 --> 00:19:17,240 why do Saturn�s rings look the way they do. 319 00:19:17,240 --> 00:19:20,110 There are very intricate structures, 320 00:19:20,110 --> 00:19:21,980 knife-edge little ringlets 321 00:19:21,980 --> 00:19:25,180 and, like, almost like the grooves in a record. 322 00:19:25,180 --> 00:19:26,880 It begs the question, of course, 323 00:19:26,880 --> 00:19:30,680 where do those structures come from. 324 00:19:34,360 --> 00:19:38,390 The clue is hidden within the rings. 325 00:19:38,390 --> 00:19:41,630 There's not five rings. There's not 500 rings. 326 00:19:41,630 --> 00:19:43,300 There's thousands of rings. 327 00:19:43,300 --> 00:19:47,630 There's potentially millions of tiny, little ringlets 328 00:19:47,640 --> 00:19:51,610 with small gaps between them, and sometimes large gaps, 329 00:19:51,610 --> 00:19:57,480 and Cassini saw that there are moons embedded inside the rings. 330 00:20:01,780 --> 00:20:06,020 These moons and moonlets seem to be shaping the rings. 331 00:20:09,460 --> 00:20:10,990 When I think about the rings of Saturn, 332 00:20:10,990 --> 00:20:13,360 I almost hear symphonies playing in my head. 333 00:20:13,360 --> 00:20:16,530 It's all about this wonderful structure and these harmonies, 334 00:20:16,530 --> 00:20:18,630 the balances between gravity. 335 00:20:18,630 --> 00:20:21,000 So, we use the word "resonance." 336 00:20:23,510 --> 00:20:26,310 Saturn's moons stir the rings particles 337 00:20:26,310 --> 00:20:30,040 with their gravitational pull, creating waves. 338 00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:37,620 There's a special place where the resonance exists. 339 00:20:37,620 --> 00:20:39,950 Imagine where the ring particles are going around twice 340 00:20:39,960 --> 00:20:42,760 for each single time the moon goes around. 341 00:20:42,760 --> 00:20:44,460 It's like pushing someone on a swing. 342 00:20:44,460 --> 00:20:46,330 If you push them at just the right rate 343 00:20:46,330 --> 00:20:48,030 they go higher and higher, 344 00:20:48,030 --> 00:20:52,100 and these places are where the waves generated. 345 00:20:52,100 --> 00:20:53,870 So, there's this ballet, this dance, 346 00:20:53,870 --> 00:20:55,570 between the ring and the moons. 347 00:20:55,570 --> 00:20:58,570 It is one of the most elegant things I've ever seen. 348 00:21:06,350 --> 00:21:08,980 But the rings aren't just being shaped 349 00:21:08,980 --> 00:21:11,350 into waves by the moons. 350 00:21:11,350 --> 00:21:14,550 They're being held in place by them. 351 00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:16,660 Through gravitational interactions, 352 00:21:16,660 --> 00:21:21,160 these moons might be shaping the rings, shepherding them, 353 00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:26,000 keeping their flock in a nice, tight orbit around the planet. 354 00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:32,270 In 2017, Cassini reveals 355 00:21:32,270 --> 00:21:34,410 there are more than one or two moons 356 00:21:34,410 --> 00:21:36,740 shepherding the rings. 357 00:21:36,750 --> 00:21:41,520 A whole team of moons holds Saturn�s outermost visible ring, 358 00:21:41,520 --> 00:21:45,120 the "a" ring, in place. 359 00:21:45,120 --> 00:21:47,250 One of the really cool things that Cassini discovered 360 00:21:47,260 --> 00:21:48,690 during its death dive 361 00:21:48,690 --> 00:21:50,620 was that there are seven moons of Saturn 362 00:21:50,630 --> 00:21:51,930 that are all working together 363 00:21:51,930 --> 00:21:54,530 to keep that ring system in configuration, 364 00:21:54,530 --> 00:21:56,630 so it's like the magnificent seven 365 00:21:56,630 --> 00:21:58,200 holding this thing together. 366 00:22:02,570 --> 00:22:07,340 Of the seven magnificent moons, the biggest is Mimas. 367 00:22:07,340 --> 00:22:09,610 It's one-eighth the size of our moon. 368 00:22:12,350 --> 00:22:16,150 The smallest, pan, is only 20 miles across. 369 00:22:18,290 --> 00:22:19,950 Acting in combination, 370 00:22:19,960 --> 00:22:25,190 these moons hold all of Saturn�s rings in check. 371 00:22:25,190 --> 00:22:28,100 So, it's these seven moons working together 372 00:22:28,100 --> 00:22:30,530 forming the ring system that we see today. 373 00:22:38,840 --> 00:22:42,580 Cassini has truly opened our eyes to the wonder 374 00:22:42,580 --> 00:22:46,410 of Saturn�s rings and many moons. 375 00:22:46,420 --> 00:22:50,080 Saturn has a lot of moons... I mean, a lot of moons, 376 00:22:50,090 --> 00:22:53,020 and they're all really interesting and different. 377 00:22:53,020 --> 00:22:54,820 Coming up with the exact number is a little difficult 378 00:22:54,820 --> 00:22:59,060 'cause it almost changes every year as we discover new ones. 379 00:22:59,060 --> 00:23:02,760 The latest count is over 60 moons, 380 00:23:02,770 --> 00:23:05,100 each with a different character, 381 00:23:05,100 --> 00:23:11,270 but one has a split personality and a very dark side. 382 00:23:29,690 --> 00:23:32,330 May 2017. 383 00:23:32,330 --> 00:23:35,300 Cassini was on its grand finale. 384 00:23:38,470 --> 00:23:42,770 The probe snapped its last photo of a strange moon 385 00:23:42,770 --> 00:23:47,810 2 million miles from Saturn... 386 00:23:47,810 --> 00:23:49,940 Iapetus. 387 00:23:49,950 --> 00:23:52,380 Iapetus was discovered hundreds of years ago, 388 00:23:52,380 --> 00:23:55,250 and right from the start it was recognized 389 00:23:55,250 --> 00:23:57,350 that one side of it was very bright, 390 00:23:57,350 --> 00:24:02,620 and the other side was as dark as dark can be. 391 00:24:02,620 --> 00:24:04,620 This dark and light moon 392 00:24:04,630 --> 00:24:08,230 confused Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini 393 00:24:08,230 --> 00:24:13,470 when he first spotted it in 1671. 394 00:24:13,470 --> 00:24:17,000 It's been puzzling scientists ever since. 395 00:24:19,140 --> 00:24:22,240 So, we get there with Cassini, and of course Iapetus 396 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:25,210 was a very major target for us 397 00:24:25,210 --> 00:24:26,850 because we were interested to know 398 00:24:26,850 --> 00:24:32,150 what was with this crazy two-toned moon. 399 00:24:34,620 --> 00:24:38,590 Cassini reveals that the answer lies even farther out 400 00:24:38,590 --> 00:24:43,800 from Saturn in the form of another moon. 401 00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:46,470 There's one pretty big but really dark moon, 402 00:24:46,470 --> 00:24:49,140 phoebe, that's outside of Iapetus 403 00:24:49,140 --> 00:24:52,710 and is orbiting the opposite direction around Saturn. 404 00:24:52,710 --> 00:24:58,510 Pheobe orbits Saturn four times farther out than Iapetus. 405 00:24:58,510 --> 00:25:02,420 As it travels around the planet, micrometeorite impacts 406 00:25:02,420 --> 00:25:07,550 the moon's surface generate a cloud of dark dust. 407 00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:12,230 The dust from phoebe actually creates a large ring. 408 00:25:12,230 --> 00:25:15,360 A ring of dark, dusty material that's drifting inwards 409 00:25:15,360 --> 00:25:18,800 toward Saturn going the opposite direction of Iapetus, 410 00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:20,670 which is the perfect material for Iapetus 411 00:25:20,670 --> 00:25:23,740 to sweep up in its orbit to create one dark side. 412 00:25:29,440 --> 00:25:32,010 Iapetus has one dark side 413 00:25:32,010 --> 00:25:34,610 because it's tidally locked to Saturn. 414 00:25:37,150 --> 00:25:41,990 One side always faces the planet 415 00:25:41,990 --> 00:25:47,330 while another side drives forward through the dust. 416 00:25:47,330 --> 00:25:49,730 It's plowing through a bunch of dust 417 00:25:49,730 --> 00:25:51,260 that's sticking to the front side, 418 00:25:51,270 --> 00:25:54,000 kind of like bugs on a windshield. 419 00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:56,640 Cassini discovered this dark dust 420 00:25:56,640 --> 00:25:59,040 makes the leading side warmer 421 00:25:59,040 --> 00:26:03,440 than the trailing bright side by 50 degrees Fahrenheit. 422 00:26:03,450 --> 00:26:05,380 When you have something that's dark like the dust 423 00:26:05,380 --> 00:26:08,080 on the leading edge of Iapetus, that gets warmer. 424 00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:09,620 It absorbs sunlight better, 425 00:26:09,620 --> 00:26:13,520 and if it's warmer then things that can evaporate more easily, 426 00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:19,790 like water for example, tends to blow off the surface. 427 00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:23,000 The front side gets darker and warmer. 428 00:26:25,570 --> 00:26:27,830 Any visible ice turns to vapor 429 00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:30,370 and makes its way to the colder trailing side 430 00:26:30,370 --> 00:26:32,370 where it refreezes. 431 00:26:34,410 --> 00:26:39,750 So, the white side gets whiter and the dark side gets darker. 432 00:26:39,750 --> 00:26:41,980 So, you have this self-sustaining dark side 433 00:26:41,980 --> 00:26:44,780 and bright side, and you wind up with this two-faced moon. 434 00:26:49,020 --> 00:26:54,090 Iapetus' two sides are strange, 435 00:26:54,100 --> 00:26:56,830 but Cassini discovers that they're not 436 00:26:56,830 --> 00:27:01,030 the weirdest thing about this moon. 437 00:27:01,040 --> 00:27:04,140 The weirdest thing is that it is a walnut. 438 00:27:09,510 --> 00:27:13,010 Iapetus has a mountain range that exactly circles its equator 439 00:27:13,020 --> 00:27:14,710 all the way around the moon, 440 00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:17,350 a mountain range higher than the Himalayas. 441 00:27:25,860 --> 00:27:30,260 These mountains are over 12 miles high, 442 00:27:30,270 --> 00:27:33,400 more than twice the altitude of Earth's highest peak, 443 00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:37,470 mount Everest. 444 00:27:37,470 --> 00:27:40,140 It's crazy. It's this huge crazy ridge 445 00:27:40,140 --> 00:27:42,140 on this really strange moon. 446 00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:48,850 How do you form a smooth equatorial mountain ridge 447 00:27:48,850 --> 00:27:50,680 around an entire world? 448 00:27:50,690 --> 00:27:54,650 A really interesting idea is that for some period of time, 449 00:27:54,660 --> 00:27:57,690 just like Saturn itself has this gigantic ring system, 450 00:27:57,690 --> 00:28:00,290 Iapetus had a ring system, as well. 451 00:28:02,500 --> 00:28:06,830 Over time, Iapetus' ring collapsed, 452 00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:09,470 falling in a circle around the moon. 453 00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:13,070 As it fell to the surface, 454 00:28:13,080 --> 00:28:14,440 it built up a mountain range 455 00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:16,640 right below where the ring was orbiting 456 00:28:16,650 --> 00:28:18,140 so that all that material just built up 457 00:28:18,150 --> 00:28:19,710 and built a mountain range 458 00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:21,720 ringing the equator all the way around. 459 00:28:25,650 --> 00:28:27,590 Walnut-shaped Iapetus 460 00:28:27,590 --> 00:28:31,390 is not the only strange moon around Saturn. 461 00:28:31,390 --> 00:28:33,230 Cassini discovered a moon 462 00:28:33,230 --> 00:28:37,630 hiding many secrets beneath its icy surface... 463 00:28:37,630 --> 00:28:42,270 Enceladus, a moon that could even harbor life. 464 00:29:01,060 --> 00:29:03,890 August 2017, 465 00:29:03,890 --> 00:29:07,830 Cassini captured six images of Enceladus, 466 00:29:09,900 --> 00:29:14,530 One of the most intriguing moons in the Solar system. 467 00:29:14,540 --> 00:29:18,910 Enceladus is a relatively small moon of Saturn 468 00:29:18,910 --> 00:29:20,410 that's pretty easy to ignore, 469 00:29:20,410 --> 00:29:25,150 but once you pay attention to it, hosts a lot of surprises. 470 00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:34,290 We've known something was unusual about this icy world 471 00:29:34,290 --> 00:29:39,960 ever since the voyager mission took photographs in 1980. 472 00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:42,760 We thought that Enceladus would be frozen solid, 473 00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:46,100 and yet we knew from voyager data the surface 474 00:29:46,100 --> 00:29:48,840 of Enceladus was bright white. 475 00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:51,040 And we could see on the surface 476 00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:54,310 that vast tracks of it were smooth, 477 00:29:54,310 --> 00:29:57,480 at least at the resolution that we had with voyager, 478 00:29:57,480 --> 00:30:01,850 and that immediately says that there's been internal activity 479 00:30:01,850 --> 00:30:04,220 because that's really, on an airless moon, 480 00:30:04,220 --> 00:30:08,420 that's the only process that could erase craters. 481 00:30:08,420 --> 00:30:10,720 Scientists suspected something 482 00:30:10,730 --> 00:30:15,630 was actively resurfacing Enceladus, 483 00:30:15,630 --> 00:30:20,770 filling in its craters to make it smooth and bright. 484 00:30:20,770 --> 00:30:25,840 Then Cassini sent back pictures of Enceladus backlit, 485 00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:28,170 and all was revealed. 486 00:30:28,180 --> 00:30:31,510 We saw these icy jets shooting out from Enceladus, 487 00:30:31,510 --> 00:30:35,720 and everyone was so amazed that a moon so tiny 488 00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:41,190 and assumed to be a frozen-solid ice cube could be so active. 489 00:30:46,060 --> 00:30:52,500 Jets of almost luminous material sprang out of geysers. 490 00:30:52,500 --> 00:30:56,140 When I first saw a picture of a geyser on Enceladus, 491 00:30:56,140 --> 00:30:58,170 I mean, I was floored. That's amazing. 492 00:30:58,170 --> 00:31:01,410 I had no idea that was even possible. 493 00:31:01,410 --> 00:31:06,780 The Cassini discovery of geysers on Enceladus was a game changer. 494 00:31:06,780 --> 00:31:09,920 All of the sudden, here's water jetting out. 495 00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:12,720 It was, like, too good to be true. 496 00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:18,360 Cassini revealed the geysers are blasting out liquid water. 497 00:31:18,360 --> 00:31:22,860 Enceladus is not a solid ball of ice. 498 00:31:22,860 --> 00:31:24,760 As we got more data from Cassini, 499 00:31:24,770 --> 00:31:27,500 we found that Enceladus had a wobble 500 00:31:27,500 --> 00:31:29,100 that was too large for a body 501 00:31:29,100 --> 00:31:31,910 that was frozen solid all the way through, 502 00:31:31,910 --> 00:31:34,510 and that told us that a liquid water ocean 503 00:31:34,510 --> 00:31:36,910 circled a rocky core. 504 00:31:36,910 --> 00:31:39,810 Enceladus has liquid water under its surface, 505 00:31:39,810 --> 00:31:42,150 and it may very well be an ocean 506 00:31:42,150 --> 00:31:45,150 basically covering the inside of that moon, 507 00:31:45,150 --> 00:31:48,720 but where's the heat coming from? 508 00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:51,120 When planets and moons form, 509 00:31:51,130 --> 00:31:54,760 their cores are incredibly hot, 510 00:31:54,760 --> 00:31:57,860 but over time they cool down. 511 00:31:57,870 --> 00:32:02,140 The smaller the planet, the faster it cools. 512 00:32:02,140 --> 00:32:06,840 A tiny world like Enceladus over a billion miles from the sun 513 00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:10,610 should have frozen solid by now. 514 00:32:10,610 --> 00:32:12,480 That's what we expected. 515 00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:14,850 If things are smaller, then they would be roughly dead, 516 00:32:14,850 --> 00:32:16,450 and they'd be covered by craters, 517 00:32:16,450 --> 00:32:21,020 but Enceladus shows us that that's not the case at all. 518 00:32:21,020 --> 00:32:24,390 How could a tiny moon so far from the sun 519 00:32:24,390 --> 00:32:26,930 have enough warmth for liquid water? 520 00:32:26,930 --> 00:32:31,330 One idea is tidal heating. 521 00:32:31,330 --> 00:32:32,670 If you've ever played racquetball, 522 00:32:32,670 --> 00:32:34,300 you know as you play the game the ball heats up, 523 00:32:34,300 --> 00:32:37,600 and this is because as the ball hits the racket or the wall, 524 00:32:37,610 --> 00:32:40,270 it's getting squished, and then it relaxes. 525 00:32:43,410 --> 00:32:46,350 Saturn�s gravity squishes and relaxes 526 00:32:46,350 --> 00:32:48,880 Enceladus as it orbits the planet, 527 00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:53,020 heating it like a racquetball, 528 00:32:53,020 --> 00:32:55,920 but this alone wouldn't generate enough heat 529 00:32:55,920 --> 00:32:59,460 to stop Enceladus' water from freezing. 530 00:32:59,460 --> 00:33:04,430 Something else must be going on in the core. 531 00:33:04,430 --> 00:33:09,500 What if the core of Enceladus is actually kind of gravelly? 532 00:33:09,500 --> 00:33:12,110 Instead of it just being solid, it's actually made of rocks 533 00:33:12,110 --> 00:33:14,270 and pebbles and gravel all put together. 534 00:33:14,280 --> 00:33:16,780 Then what happens is as the tides are stretching 535 00:33:16,780 --> 00:33:20,280 and squeezing it, those rocks are rubbing together, 536 00:33:20,280 --> 00:33:23,280 and that actually generates even more energy. 537 00:33:26,150 --> 00:33:30,890 2017, a computer model based on Cassini data 538 00:33:30,890 --> 00:33:34,760 revealed this tidal friction generates more energy 539 00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:38,970 than America�s biggest power station. 540 00:33:38,970 --> 00:33:44,470 Water heated to 194 degrees Fahrenheit rises to the surface. 541 00:33:44,470 --> 00:33:46,770 It sprays through cracks in the moon's 542 00:33:46,780 --> 00:33:50,080 south pole creating misty plumes. 543 00:33:53,550 --> 00:33:56,350 As we flew seven times through and tasted and sampled 544 00:33:56,350 --> 00:34:00,020 the gas and the particles, we found salty particles, 545 00:34:00,020 --> 00:34:04,360 that the ocean was salty very much like the Earth's ocean. 546 00:34:04,360 --> 00:34:09,030 We found hydocarbons, methane, carbon dioxide, ammonia. 547 00:34:09,030 --> 00:34:12,070 We found the key ingredients for life 548 00:34:12,070 --> 00:34:17,000 coming out of the jets of Enceladus... so remarkable. 549 00:34:19,610 --> 00:34:24,740 In 2018, scientists reanalyze the Enceladus data 550 00:34:24,750 --> 00:34:29,780 and found something even more remarkable... 551 00:34:29,780 --> 00:34:33,750 Complex organic molecules. 552 00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:37,620 What they found were larger organic compounds 553 00:34:37,630 --> 00:34:39,090 than initially thought there. 554 00:34:39,090 --> 00:34:42,460 At first, it was just dust and water and some basic organics. 555 00:34:42,460 --> 00:34:44,660 Now they're seeing more complex stuff 556 00:34:44,670 --> 00:34:47,430 coming up from Enceladus' interior, 557 00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:51,740 and that asks the question what else is down there. 558 00:34:51,740 --> 00:34:57,140 On Earth, we find life huddled around hot vents on the seabed. 559 00:34:57,150 --> 00:35:01,950 Could the same be true in the oceans of Enceladus? 560 00:35:01,950 --> 00:35:07,150 Could these complex organic molecules be signs of life? 561 00:35:07,160 --> 00:35:09,520 My favorite name for them is "goo." 562 00:35:09,520 --> 00:35:13,360 they're gooey things, and think of life 563 00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:15,260 as a collection of gooey-like molecules. 564 00:35:15,260 --> 00:35:18,300 Now, that doesn't mean that all gooey molecules are biological, 565 00:35:18,300 --> 00:35:20,400 but certainly biology makes use 566 00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:23,770 of these complex organic molecules. 567 00:35:23,770 --> 00:35:26,640 Deep in Enceladus' oceans, 568 00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:32,280 heat from hydrothermal vents drives chemical reactions... 569 00:35:32,280 --> 00:35:36,120 Combining simple molecules like methane and hydrogen 570 00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:41,550 into longer, complex organic molecules, 571 00:35:41,560 --> 00:35:47,760 complex molecules that could serve as the precursors to life. 572 00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:50,830 What's amazing is the chemistry of that ocean. 573 00:35:50,830 --> 00:35:53,130 Everything needed for life is there. 574 00:35:53,130 --> 00:35:55,770 The eternal question is is there life in the universe, 575 00:35:55,770 --> 00:35:59,070 and Enceladus is a great place to try and answer that question. 576 00:36:03,980 --> 00:36:06,650 And Cassini revealed secrets 577 00:36:06,650 --> 00:36:10,650 of another moon of Saturn with amazing chemistry, 578 00:36:10,650 --> 00:36:14,020 a giant moon with earth-like features... 579 00:36:14,020 --> 00:36:17,720 Rivers, lakes, and dunes... 580 00:36:17,730 --> 00:36:19,730 Titan. 581 00:36:36,640 --> 00:36:40,450 September 2017, 582 00:36:40,450 --> 00:36:42,550 four days before the mission ended, 583 00:36:42,550 --> 00:36:45,080 Cassini flew past one of Saturn�s 584 00:36:45,090 --> 00:36:50,120 most spectacular moons, Titan. 585 00:36:50,120 --> 00:36:53,260 Here's why I like Titan... Not just because it has a name 586 00:36:53,260 --> 00:36:56,130 that means "big" and "strong," which makes you think of me, 587 00:36:56,130 --> 00:36:59,670 but because it has an extensive atmosphere 588 00:36:59,670 --> 00:37:02,900 that's made primarily of nitrogen, just like Earth's. 589 00:37:06,510 --> 00:37:09,340 Titan's always been a mystery. 590 00:37:09,340 --> 00:37:13,580 What is hiding underneath that thick atmosphere? 591 00:37:16,520 --> 00:37:18,480 Viewed through a telescope, 592 00:37:18,490 --> 00:37:22,660 this moon seemed little more than a hazy orange ball. 593 00:37:22,660 --> 00:37:26,360 Then Cassini launched the Huygens probe. 594 00:37:26,360 --> 00:37:28,630 It traveled beneath the clouds 595 00:37:28,630 --> 00:37:33,430 and sent back images of Titan's surface. 596 00:37:33,430 --> 00:37:39,840 I almost can't describe how thrilling it was, 597 00:37:39,840 --> 00:37:42,810 the landing of the Huygens probe on the surface of Titan. 598 00:37:42,810 --> 00:37:45,480 It was like a Jules Verne adventure come true. 599 00:37:53,050 --> 00:37:55,050 The images that you see 600 00:37:55,060 --> 00:37:56,620 as you're coming through the atmosphere 601 00:37:56,620 --> 00:37:58,190 and the world emerges, 602 00:37:58,190 --> 00:38:02,190 and it's this incredible world that looks so familiar. 603 00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:05,770 Mountains and these streams flowing into this ocean. 604 00:38:05,770 --> 00:38:07,270 Wow! 605 00:38:07,270 --> 00:38:10,500 You might be standing on the shores of a lake, 606 00:38:10,510 --> 00:38:13,010 but this lake doesn't look like water. 607 00:38:13,010 --> 00:38:14,340 Instead, it's methane. 608 00:38:14,340 --> 00:38:16,480 It's much darker. 609 00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:18,540 It's a frigid, bizarre world 610 00:38:18,550 --> 00:38:21,150 with geologic features that look familiar, 611 00:38:21,150 --> 00:38:23,720 but in a very, very alien setting. 612 00:38:23,720 --> 00:38:27,250 Titan is like a home away from home. 613 00:38:27,260 --> 00:38:32,330 It's just colder by about 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 614 00:38:32,330 --> 00:38:35,230 The Cassini mission revealed that Titan is 615 00:38:35,230 --> 00:38:38,160 really exactly like Earth in terms of its landscape. 616 00:38:38,170 --> 00:38:40,130 In fact, almost a quarter of the body 617 00:38:40,130 --> 00:38:43,800 is covered in sand dunes exactly like what you see behind me. 618 00:38:48,580 --> 00:38:55,010 But Cassini reveals Titan's dunes are not what they seem. 619 00:38:55,020 --> 00:38:57,480 The dunes on Titan are made of something 620 00:38:57,490 --> 00:38:59,890 completely different than sand dunes on the Earth. 621 00:38:59,890 --> 00:39:02,390 You know, most sand on the Earth is made of quartz, 622 00:39:02,390 --> 00:39:04,560 but on Titan sand dunes, it turns out, 623 00:39:04,560 --> 00:39:06,630 are made entirely of organics. 624 00:39:08,730 --> 00:39:11,760 Titan's sand is made from tiny particles 625 00:39:11,770 --> 00:39:15,400 of organic gunk called hydrocarbons. 626 00:39:20,340 --> 00:39:25,540 These organic dunes contain the building blocks of life. 627 00:39:25,550 --> 00:39:31,420 For scientists, this is a tantalizing hint. 628 00:39:31,420 --> 00:39:34,150 Could Titan harbor life? 629 00:39:37,690 --> 00:39:40,130 Here on Earth, there's life that exists 630 00:39:40,130 --> 00:39:42,330 in so many extreme environments, 631 00:39:42,330 --> 00:39:45,500 so its not impossible to think that life 632 00:39:45,500 --> 00:39:47,870 could have evolved to use the methane 633 00:39:47,870 --> 00:39:50,840 and all of the other chemical constituents on Titan. 634 00:39:50,840 --> 00:39:55,070 If life has developed on Titan, it's going to look really weird. 635 00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:58,440 It's going to be really different from life on Earth. 636 00:39:58,450 --> 00:40:00,310 To me, there's going to be this wonderful moment 637 00:40:00,310 --> 00:40:02,110 in history when we really do have 638 00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:04,620 another example of how life can be, 639 00:40:04,620 --> 00:40:06,520 and if I had to place my bets on it, 640 00:40:06,520 --> 00:40:10,490 I think we're going to find it in the Saturn system. 641 00:40:10,490 --> 00:40:13,790 But Cassini's discovery of potential life 642 00:40:13,800 --> 00:40:17,630 sentenced the probe to death. 643 00:40:17,630 --> 00:40:21,030 We didn't want to leave it just indefinitely in orbit 644 00:40:21,040 --> 00:40:24,270 because there's this fear that, you know, 645 00:40:24,270 --> 00:40:27,670 should there be any Earthly contamination on the spacecraft, 646 00:40:27,680 --> 00:40:31,110 you don't want it crashing into Titan or Enceladus. 647 00:40:33,480 --> 00:40:39,120 Cassini interacted with Titan one last time. 648 00:40:39,120 --> 00:40:41,990 With a gentle nudge from Titan's gravity, 649 00:40:41,990 --> 00:40:45,190 we call it Titan's goodbye kiss. 650 00:40:45,190 --> 00:40:50,400 We ended the mission with a plunge into Saturn�s atmosphere, 651 00:40:50,400 --> 00:40:54,900 vaporizing Cassini and saying goodbye to our friend. 652 00:40:59,140 --> 00:41:03,240 I hope you're all as deeply proud 653 00:41:03,240 --> 00:41:06,110 of this amazing accomplishment. 654 00:41:06,110 --> 00:41:09,010 I'm going to call this the end of mission. 655 00:41:09,020 --> 00:41:11,550 Project manager bob Mitchell. 656 00:41:19,330 --> 00:41:24,430 Although Cassini is gone, its legacy lives on. 657 00:41:24,430 --> 00:41:26,770 Now we're sifting through 658 00:41:26,770 --> 00:41:31,100 all of the data collected, still finding discoveries, 659 00:41:31,110 --> 00:41:34,710 putting together the pieces of the puzzle to understand 660 00:41:34,710 --> 00:41:37,310 Saturn, the rings, and the moons. 661 00:41:37,310 --> 00:41:40,380 Cassini is going to go down in history 662 00:41:40,380 --> 00:41:42,780 as one of the most scientifically productive 663 00:41:42,780 --> 00:41:48,150 interplanetary missions that humanity has ever flown. 664 00:41:48,160 --> 00:41:53,660 I'm immensely proud and feel enormously privileged 665 00:41:53,660 --> 00:41:55,290 to have been a part of it. 666 00:42:02,240 --> 00:42:06,670 Besides the amazing science Cassini returned, 667 00:42:06,670 --> 00:42:09,340 just the beauty of this planet 668 00:42:09,340 --> 00:42:13,150 I think sparked something inside of us. 669 00:42:13,150 --> 00:42:15,110 Whenever I look up at Saturn now, 670 00:42:15,120 --> 00:42:17,750 I know that Cassini is there, too, 671 00:42:17,750 --> 00:42:21,720 and so Saturn is even a more special place. 672 00:42:21,770 --> 00:42:26,320 Repair and Synchronization by Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0 55051

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