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The Cassini/Huygens spacecraft is one of the most powerful probes ever launched in the space for astronomic research on the planets of our solar system. Its name is in the honour of the Italian astronomer Gian Domenico Cassini (1625-1712) who discovered the first 4 satellites of Saturn and studied the structure of its rings and of Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) who discovered Titan, the biggest moon of Saturn (5150 Km of diameter, bigger than the planet Mercury).

This mission was organized as a joint program by NASA, ESA and ASI (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana/Italian Space Agency) and the Cassini/Huygens spacecraft was launched in orbit on October 15th, 1997 by a powerful Titan IV/Centaur rocket. To get the necessary speed to reach Saturn, Cassini followed a long path in the space, with the gravitational impulse given by its passage near Venus, the Earth and Jupiter. So, it would get to Saturn in July 2004, after nearly 7 years.

- Objectives and results of the Cassini mission.

The objective of the Cassini spacecraft is to explore Saturn and its fascinating system made of rings and moons. For this purpose, it was originally formed by two components: the Cassini orbiter and the smaller Huygens probe. The "suicide" mission of the latter (occurred on January 14th, 2005) was to detach itself from Cassini and to fall in the atmosphere of Titan (the only satellite of our planetary system to have an atmosphere) to record and transmit data on Titan's atmosphere and surface during the fall.

In June 2008, Cassini completed the first part of its mission, lasted 4 years, to explore the complex Saturn system, without any damage or failure and, now, it has already started the second phase, named "Cassini Equinox Mission" because it exploits the sunlight that has started to illuminate directly the equator of the planet and, afterward, the northern hemisphere and the rings. This is to explore better Saturn rings, the seasonal changes in its atmosphere and the moons Enceladus and Titan.

Enceladus (500 Km of diameter, at an average distance of 238,000 Km from Saturn), in fact, is interesting because, despite formed by frozen ice and rocks, it is warmed and made active by the tidal forces exerted by Saturn. So, it shows many gases and water ice fountains from its surface that would prove the existence of liquid water under its frozen crust. Cassini has already analyzed the material from these plumes, discovering many complex organic molecules. The hope is that this satellite could

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