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of all the mysteries that scientists

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investigate the greatest riddle is life

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itself what caused a planet like Earth

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to form around our Sun what sparked

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chemicals to burst forth into life to

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help answer these questions

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astronomers are studying celestial

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fossils from the solar system's earliest

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the planets and the Sun were created

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four and a half billion years ago from a

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heat from the young Sun and the pressure

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of the solar wind swept clean nearby

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but farther away the cold outer regions

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preserve giant gas balls like Jupiter

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and Saturn comets were to remain frozen

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fossils holding secrets of the chemical

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life itself is found only on earth but

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clues to its origins may be found in the

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distant reaches of giant planets moons

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and comets the NASA missions to the

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outer solar system are named comic

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rendezvous asteroid flyby or craft and

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Cassini craft and Cassini are the first

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missions in Mariner mark to a new series

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of spacecraft being designed to explore

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the outer solar system dr. Tobias Owen

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of the state university of new york the

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inner planets are small they've been

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heavily bombarded reworked from within

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that early history is more or less gone

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it's been very very changed with time

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but in the outer solar system the low

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temperature out there has preserved the

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chemistry in a primitive state from the

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time the solar system formed comets took

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they are likely composed of the same

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primitive chemicals as the ancient

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nebula of gas and dust that formed the

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Sun and solar system 1986 a fleet of

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international spacecraft track Halley's

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Comet and reveal a snowball of dust and

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ice and the hint of organic compounds in

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1995 craft will be launched to a typical

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comet named cough on its outward flight

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the spacecraft first investigates an

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in August 2000 it reaches its

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destination as craft travels alongside

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the comet it fires a penetrator lander

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equipped with a laboratory of

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these instruments will directly sample

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chemicals that could be relics of an era

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billions of years old

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comets must have impacted the earth with

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considerable frequency shortly after the

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planet itself was formed so the Comets

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were bringing in this rich mixture of

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organic material which would have been

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available to give life a sort of

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headstart the chemical reactions for

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life ahead start as we proceed down the

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path towards increasing complexity and

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ultimately to life itself so we want to

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know what are those compounds what are

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the chemical missing links in Earth's

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past while crafts studies the comet for

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three years

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Cassini is an international mission that

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teams an orbiter spacecraft built by

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NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a

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probe provided by the European Space

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Agency ISA Cassini was named for the

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17th century astronomer John Dominique

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Cassini here in the Paris observatory he

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discovered four of Saturn's moons and

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the division in Saturn's rings dr.

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Danielle Gautier is the chief scientist

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for the Titan probe but louis xiv invite

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him to come here and he discover all

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four satellites of Saturn yeah you can

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see the notes by Cassini where he put

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discoveries the spacecraft Cassini will

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orbit Saturn for at least three years

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giving scientists an extended look at

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the ringed planet and its elaborate

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system of moons the most tantalizing of

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those moons is Saturn's largest Titan

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Titan is larger than the planet Mercury

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and is the only moon with a major

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atmosphere in 2002 Cassini will launch

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its european-built probe to descend to

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the most important I think the most

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important project of the title pub will

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be the measurement of complex molecules

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which are expected to be present in the

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upper atmosphere Titan including the

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organic molecules which has used to

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build life we don't believe that the

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life exists on Titan because it's of

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course but obviously there is a complex

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chemistry detailed measurements will be

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made of the thick nitrogen methane

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atmosphere believed to contain the

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chemical precursors to a life supporting

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environment huge lakes of liquid methane

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and ethane may exist on Titan the probe

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will analyze compounds on the surface

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and relay the information back to the

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orbiting spacecraft Titan has an

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atmosphere that is denser than our own

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consisting primarily of nitrogen but

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with a lot of carbon rich compounds as

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well now what's fascinating about that

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atmosphere for us is that it allows us

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to do a kind of cosmic time traveled as

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if we could go back in time and see what

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the earth was like shortly after it

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formed because Titan being at such a low

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temperature has preserved those original

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conditions so the kinds of chemical

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reactions taking place in Titan's

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atmosphere today we think resemble the

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kinds of things that happened on the

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very early earth which ultimately led to

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the formation of life here raff and

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Cassini are a new series of spacecraft

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being designed at the Jet Propulsion

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Laboratory to explore the outer solar

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system the spacecraft to be launched on

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expendable rockets streamlined design

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and operations to save costs

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what we're trying to do with these two

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spacecraft is to gain information about

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two of the biggest questions that people

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have ever asked themselves one is where

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did the solar system come from the

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second is where did we come from how did

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life on earth begin time has obliterated

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remnants of the past the celestial past

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on our planet by exploring comets

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asteroids Saturn and its moons we are

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looking backwards in time

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the astronomical equivalent of being the

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first to open an ancient vault it is an