An ode to Kepler (and also Cassini)

With the recent news that Kepler has downed tools, I feel like this post is long coming, particularly since Cassini has been dead for a while now, crushed beyond repair by the pressures inside Saturn’s atmosphere. Kepler and Cassini were intimate parts of my childhood; when I was first introduced to astronomy, these were some of the most important missions that were in operation.  The romantic inside me cannot help but be saddened by this sudden realization that two such incredible pillars of my childhood are no more.

Cassini’s downfall was inevitable – it outlived its initial mission objectives by a considerable period of time. Rather than get emotional about its demise, however, I feel it necessary to revel in some of the discoveries that this sturdy little probe made for us! We all know today of Enceladus’ plumes of water-ice erupting from its poles, of Saturn’s weird hexagonal cloud structures in its poles, and also of Titan’s wondrous surface. As a consequence of the myriad of discoveries made by Cassini, nothing strikes me more than the simplistic realization that the Saturnian system is even more beautiful and intricate than it appears at first glance!

From Cassini’s exploits in the Saturnian system, I want to pan out and look at Kepler’s accomplishments. But firstly, some context. Kepler’s main mission was to discover exoplanets, a nascent breed of extra-solar objects which we first detected in the late-80s to the early 90s. Prior to its launch, we knew of hundreds of exoplanets. Now, however, we know of thousands!

For me, a young child just beginning to dabble at his interest in the cosmos, space missions like Cassini and Kepler provided an intimate link through which I could begin to understand my interests better. The realization that there are these wondrous manmade objects in space doing the reconnoitering for us filled me with a sense of the incredible achievements we as a species are capable of.   

In conclusion, the Cassini and Kepler spacecrafts provided a fitting way to celebrate the discoveries of their namesakes, discoveries that had heralded the start of the Scientific age.