(2 of 2)
The discoveries are coming fast. At a pre-encounter press conference last week, University of Arizona Astronomer Bradford Smith announced two previously undetected moons—Saturn's 13th and 14th known satellites—probably no more than 320 km (200 miles) in diameter and 80,000 km (50,000 miles) above its clouds. The scientists also reported puzzling complexities—apparently less dense regions—in the planet's ring system; the varying speeds of material traveling in different portions of the rings should presumably smooth out such features, but somehow they survive for hours at a time. Finally, the scientists confirmed the existence of three other moons, which had been only tentatively identified from earlier observations. Two of them are traveling in the same orbit and seem to be edging ever closer, but probably will slip by each other in a kind of celestial waltz approximately two years from now.
Voyager 1 will not be around for that spectacle. After sweeping within 4,000 km (2,500 miles) of Titan, the spacecraft will plunge through the plane of Saturn's rings, soar past the moon Tethys, and on Nov. 12 come to within 124,000 km (77,174 miles) of the planet's cloud tops. Whipped by Saturn's gravity, the spacecraft will then swing quickly up and around the planet, photograph other moons, make a film of Saturn's swiftly moving clouds and rings and, finally, head out of the solar system.