DETROIT, June 22 /PRNewswire/

Ever since Galileo discovered the rings of Saturn in 1610, people have marveled at this dramatic and mysterious planet. Now you can discover Saturn's beauty and mystery in the Dassault Systemes Planetarium show, "Saturn: Jewel of the Solar System," presented by the Metro Detroit Saturn Retailers, at The New Detroit Science Center.

"Saturn: Jewel of the Solar System," opening June 26, 2004, follows the mission of the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft as it orbits the second largest planet of the solar system, studying its more than 30 moons, bright rings and other features.

The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was named for Dutch astronomer Christian Huygens and French-Italian astronomer Jean Dominique Cassini, both instrumental in discovering important details in Saturn's rings. The spacecraft represents the combined effort of scientists and engineers in 18 countries, and is one of the largest (size of a school bus), heaviest (12,000 pounds) and most sophisticated (array of 18 packages of scientific instruments) interplanetary spacecrafts ever launched.

Launched on October 15, 1997, Cassini-Huygens set out on a seven year, two billion-mile odyssey to the outer solar system. Though not the first spacecraft to reach Saturn, Pioneer II and Voyagers I and II made brief visits, speeding past the planet between 1979 and 1981, Cassini-Huygens will be the first to stay and analyze the planet, its moons and rings.

The Cassini spacecraft will monitor and send back information on Saturn's rings and the innermost regions of the planet's magnetic field. The mission of the Huygens probe, product of the European Space Agency, is to detach from the Cassini spacecraft, descend into the atmosphere of Saturn's largest satellite, Titan, and actually land on its surface.

Larger than the planets Mercury and Pluto, Titan is one of the most intriguing satellites in the solar system, with a thick, smoggy shroud of an atmosphere rich in organic compounds that may hold secrets to the evolution of life on our planet. The probe will record the chemical composition of Titan's atmosphere, as well as make detailed measurements of temperature, pressure and density while on-board cameras capture up to 1,100 photos and sophisticated radar map portions of Titan's surface.

Cassini will also study Saturn's magnificent rings, nearly 200,000 miles from edge to edge, yet no more than a hundred feet thick. In reality they are an enormous blizzard of millions upon millions of pieces of ice that range in size from grains of sand to boulders larger than a house. Each races around Saturn in separate orbits at speeds up to 50,000 miles per hour.

While the "tour phase" of the mission is scheduled to last four years, the spacecraft may well remain in good health long thereafter. If so the mission may be extended to have a closer look at new discoveries encountered along the way, or take a higher risk assignment beyond the scope of the regular mission.

The New Detroit Science Center's Dassault Systemes Planetarium is one of the world's finest digital planetarium projection systems. Digistar(R) technology and Sky-Skan automation allow spectacular journeys through the wild, wide universe. Images are projected in three dimensions onto a 50-foot wide, three-story high dome, which fills the audience's field of vision. A 13,000-watt Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound system allows viewers to experience a phenomenon like a Supernova in its full sound and fury.

The New Detroit Science Center features 110,000 square feet of scientific exploration, including Michigan's only IMAX(R) Dome Theatre; the Dassault Systemes Planetarium; the Ford Learning Resource Center; the DTE Energy Sparks Theater; the DaimlerChrysler Science Stage; an 8,700 square-foot Science Hall for traveling exhibits; five exhibit laboratories -- General Motors Motion Laboratory, Dow Foundation Life Sciences Laboratory, Waves & Vibrations Laboratory, Matter & Energy Laboratory and SBC Children's Gallery; and a Special Events Lobby. It has served more than one million visitors in its first 30 months. For more information on The New Detroit Science Center please call 313-577-8400 or visit the website, http://www.detroitsciencecenter.org.
 

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