Like the Cassini mission itself, this book explores Saturn, its rings, moons and magnetosphere. That’s a lot of material to cover in a limited space. I emphasize the physical processes that
have shaped the Saturn system, using some of the most dramatic and intriguing discoveries made by Cassini at Saturn as case studies to illustrate these processes. The book is written for a general audience, and it is also appropriate as an introduction to planetary sciences for students.
Cassini’s observations of Saturn, spanning more than 13 years, have revolutionized our understanding of the planet, its complex ring system, and many of its moons, especially Enceladus and Titan. I have always been interested in why things are the way they are, and there are many astounding observations made by Cassini that demand an answer to the question ‘why is that?’. We have answers to that
question for many of Cassini’s discoveries, and this book covers a diverse set, from the origins of dusty ring particles to the heart of the giant planet itself. I emphasize links between the phenomena at Saturn and planetary systems in general. And still this only scratches the surface. There are many more intriguing phenomena and discoveries that I could not include without having the book expand to several times
its current length. I hope the reader is inspired to learn more about this fascinating planet and its family of rings and moons. The images in this book are also just a sampling of those returned by Cassini to illustrate the physics described in the book and to whet the appetite of the reader to discover more at the public repositories of all Cassini data.
