Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) was a Dutch scientist who discovered Saturn's rings and, in 1655, its largest moon, Titan. Italian Jean-Dominique Cassini (1625-1712) discovered the Saturnian satellites Iapetus, Rhea, Tethys and Dione. In 1675 he discovered what is known today as the 'Cassini Division', the narrow gap separating Saturn's rings.
Bear in mind that these guys were using telescopes with the comparative clarity of Coca-Cola bottles -- This was the 17th century! Shakespeare was still writing, Newton was wondering why apples were hitting him on the head, and the Montgolfier brothers figured out how to fly by filling a balloon with hot air. In America, Ben Framklin almost electrocuted himself with a key, a kite and a thunderstorm. The ipod was more than 300 years away.
Christiaan and Jean-Dominique almost certainly knew each other, since both of them worked at the Paris Observatory at about the same time (1670s), but it is safe to assume that never in their wildest dreams could they have imagined their two names being stencilled on a spacecraft that would fly to Saturn.
Click on the headline for the complete Huygens-Cassini story; watch the video below to marvel at what human beings can do if they set their minds to the task... and then wonder why half the Earth is still starving, Semitic tribes are still killing each other over territorial claims, and people with the money, power and influence to do something just don't appear to give a damn.
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