The Cassini spacecraft was the first orbiter to study planet Saturn in detail and has been in orbit around Saturn for almost four years. In 2005, the European Space Agency’s piggybacked Huygens probe plunged through Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, and was the first probe to land on the moon’s surface. Cassini-Huygens had shown birdseye and ground-level views of Titan, an Earth-like world which features river valley networks and lakes filled with hydrocarbons. Cassini has discovered water-ice geysers spewing from Saturn’s smaller moon, Enceladus, and has detected five new moons and observed a very dynamic ring system.

Joe Burns, a Cassini imaging scientist at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York and a guest co-curator of the American Museum of National History, will feature an exhibition on April 26, 2008 of the best images of Saturn. Burns stated:

“We are excited to have the opportunity to show these breathtaking photographs to the broader public in one of the world’s greatest science museums.”

Burns, along with colleagues at Cornell University and on the Cassini project, have been collaborating with museum curators for the past year on the image selection, scientific captions and exhibit design.