Giovanni Domenico Cassini

Born in June 1625 in Perinaldo, then part of the Savoyard state near what is now the Italian-French border, Cassini worked as a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, and engineer. He discovered four satellites of Saturn and observed the division in its rings, a feature later named the Cassini Division. Beyond the planets, he produced the first scientific map of the Moon and launched his family's multi-generational effort to create a topographic map of France. He died in Paris on 14 September 1712. Nearly three centuries later, the Cassini space probe — launched in 1997 — carried his name to S…