Institute for Advanced Study/Princeton University Joint Astrophysics Colloquium - Speaker 2

For 13 years, the rich suite of scientific investigations onboard the Cassini spacecraft was brought to bear on everything in the Saturn system -- its atmosphere, magnetosphere, enormous rings, and retinue of moons. This presentation will highlight two areas of special interest. It will begin with a brief survey of those Cassini discoveries in the rings of Saturn that have wide-ranging application in astronomy. Then it will dive deep into the large and diverse collection of findings that Cassini returned on the moon Enceladus. In conjunction with theoretical studies, these results have produced an unusually detailed body of knowledge of what is at present the most well-understood, most accessible extraterrestrial sub-surface ocean and, possibly, the best place to search for extraterrestrial life in the solar system.