Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff. I'm Lauren Bogelbaum, and today's episode is another classic from our former host, Christian Sagar. In this one, we pay tribute to NASA's Cassini mission and talk about how exploring space can help us learn about the universe and our own planet. Hey brain Stuff, it's Christian Sager here. Before meeting its fiery demise in Saturn's atmosphere on Friday September.
NASA's groundbreaking Cassini mission to Saturn had spent thirteen years redefining our view of the beautiful ringed gas giant, but it's discoveries went well beyond pure science. Like the long duration space missions that came before it, the Galileo mission to Jupiter, the Twin Voyager probes, and more recently, the European Rosetta mission, Cassini irrevocably changed our perspectives, but coming ingrained in the lives of the people who worked with
the mission and had tangible impacts on society. Cassini's scientific accolades are nothing short of revolutionary. With the help of the European High Gen's lander, it explored the stunningly dynamic atmosphere of Titan, discovering vast lakes of liquid methane and uncovering a vast subsurface ocean of liquid water. Close up examinations of the planet's rings revealed stunning detail and the
intricate relationship with its moons. Cassini tracked changes in Saturn's atmosphere as its seasons progressed, a feat that could only be achieved by putting a long duration probe in orbit about the planet for more than a decade. And then there's en Celaduce, a small icy moon that, until Cassini arrived in two thousand four, hit a secret and ocean with the potential for life. Thanks to end Celluduce, it doesn't look as if you need a planet with liquid
water on its surface like Earth. Unlike our world, moons like Enceladuce, Titan, possibly Dione, Jupiter's Europa, and Neptune's Triton hide their liquid water underneath their surfaces, and these moons are abundant dynamic places in our Solar system. Io has volcanic plumes and Europa has a liquid ocean with seas, rain, rivers, and volcanoes. Geysers come out of Neptune's moon Titan. Though these places are extremely cold and water cannot exist as
a liquid. Other chemicals with lower freezing points step in to become their lubricants, and in the case of Titan, it's methane and all kinds of hydrocarbons. In the case of Inseladuce, it's liquid water heated by tides all the way out to nept Tune, where the lubricant is nitrogen. This could mean that we might discover a similar rich diversity in other star systems. Space exploration has a knack for putting our place in the universe into perspective, but
this goes beyond the science. It has an impact on society. Like the famous pale blue dot photograph of a distant Earth captured by the Voyager one spacecraft as it was speeding into the unknown frontiers of our Solar system two Cassini's own portrait of Earth during the Wave at Saturn event. Space exploration can give the world a sense of togetherness. These images from space also act as a catalyst to give people optimism, considering beauty beyond the strife here on Earth.
Today's episode was written by Ian O'Neill and produced by Tristan mcne and Tyler Klang. For more in this lots of other far out topics, visit how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts in my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.