European Planetary Science Congress 2018
16–21 September 2018
TU Berlin | Berlin | Germany

OPS2

Cassini's Legacy: One Year Later
Convener: Scott Edgington  | Co-conveners: Sushil K. Atreya , Athena Coustenis , Norbert Krupp , Linda Spilker 
Oral programme
 / Mon, 17 Sep, 10:45–12:30  / 14:00–15:45  / Room Jupiter
Poster programme
 / Attendance Tue, 18 Sep, 18:15–20:00  / Display Tue, 18 Sep, 08:00–20:00  / Poster area

The Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn ended in a dramatic plunge into Saturn's atmosphere on September 15, 2017 sending back in-situ data as long as possible. Since 2004, Cassini and the Huygens probe revealed the entire Saturn system and opened up new Ocean Worlds for further exploration. In its final 9 months, Cassini's 20 Ring-Grazing orbits (bringing the spacecraft just outside the rings) and 22 "Grand Finale" orbits starting in April 2017, with closest approach between the innermost D ring and Saturn's upper atmosphere, enabled the opportunity for unique science observations including probes of gravitational and magnetic field moments to higher order and precision; constraining the ring mass; in-situ sampling of the plasma and dust environment, upper atmosphere and exosphere; and high resolution imaging both Saturn, its rings and ring moons. We propose a multi-disciplinary session to report on analysis and modeling of data collected during this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore Saturn up close in addition to highlighting the legacy of discoveries of the Saturn system made over thirteen years of exploration.