CASSINI'S MISSION EXPLORING SATURN:
Since leaving Earth in October 1997, the spacecraft:
* Travelled for seven years to reach the gas planet
* Spent 13 years orbiting it, equal to 293 times
* Discovered six moons
* Took 450,000 images
* Collected 635GB of data
* Carried the Huygens probe, which landed on Saturn's largest moon, Titan
* The Titan landing was the most distant landing from Earth to date
* Discovered rain, rivers, lakes and seas of liquid methane on Titan
* Found active water/ice plumes on the moon Enceladus
* Showed structures 2.5km high in Saturn's rings
* The mission cost $US3.26 billion ($A4.06 billion)
Source: CSIRO
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