November 9, 2005
Dr. Edward C. Sittler Jr.
NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center
"New Results from
Cassini's
Plasma Spectrometer
at Saturn"
TALK ABSTRACT: -------------- The Cassini spacecraft with Huygens Probe went into orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004. The Huygens Probe entered Titan's atmosphere and safely landed on its surface on January 12, 2005. On the Cassini orbiter there is a plasma instrument called Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS). This instrument is composed of an Ion Mass Spectrometer (IMS), Electron Spectrometer (ELS) and Ion Beam Spectrometer (IBS). The IMS and IBS cover the energy range from 1 V < E/Q < 50 kV, and the ELS covers the energy range from 1 eV < E < 30 keV. The IMS, using time-of-flight (TOF) technology is able to separate ions in M/Q with the ability to distinguish between some ion species of the same M/Q. For this talk I will primarily be presenting results from the CAPS instrument. I will focus the talk on Saturn Orbit Insertion (SOI) data for the inner magnetosphere of Saturn, the numerous flybys with Saturn's moon Titan, and the most recent flyby with its icy moon Enceladus.