The most exciting thing that we have found with Cassini is the geological activity, the geysering activity at the south pole of Enceladus. Carolyn Porco Read Quote
No matter how you measure it, whether you measure the amount of mass or you measure the number of bodies, most of our solar system exists out beyond the orbits of the asteroids. So we could not have claimed to know our own solar system until Voyager had toured the giant planets. Carolyn Porco Read Quote
When the Voyager 2 spacecraft sped through the Saturnian system more than a quarter of a century ago, it came within 90,000 kilometers of the moon Enceladus. Over the course of a few hours, its cameras returned a handful of images that confounded planetary scientists for years. Carolyn Porco Read Quote
Even if the ocean on Enceladus starts out being as microbially poor as the pelagic ocean on Earth, which is the worst case, we still have a chance of seeing lots of organisms in the plumes. Carolyn Porco Read Quote
Saturn itself is a giant planet, and there’s much to be gained by investigating its meteorology and studying its magnetic field. Carolyn Porco Read Quote
The questions that we scientist have about Saturn’s rings are the questions that an ordinary person might be moved to ask when first seeing them, you know. What caused them? How did they get there? How long have they been around? How long are they going to last? Carolyn Porco Read Quote
Whenever we humans think that we might be approaching something that is vaguely similar to Earth, we get very excited about it. The prospect of something familiar but yet so distant and so strange is a very exciting combination. Carolyn Porco Read Quote
Cassini was so profoundly, scientifically successful. It’s amazing to me, even, what we were able to do right up until the end. Carolyn Porco Read Quote