Tag Archive for 'Saturn'

Enceladus’ tiger stripes are known to be spewing ice from the moon’s icy interior into space, creating a cloud of fine ice particles over the moon’s south pole and creating Saturn’s mysterious E-ring. Evidence for this has come from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft that orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017. Pictured here, a high resolution image of Enceladus is shown from a close flyby. Tiger stripes are visible in false-color blue. Image credit: NASA / ESA / JPL / SSI / Cassini Imaging Team.

Enceladus’ Tiger Stripes Finally Explained

Dec 10, 2019 by News Staff

Saturn’s 300-mile- (500 km) diameter moon Enceladus is thought to have an outer ice shell covering a liquid water ocean. Slashed across the moon’s...

The global geologic map of Titan. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU.

Researchers Create Global Geologic Map of Saturn’s Moon Titan

Nov 19, 2019 by News Staff

Using radar and infrared data from NASA’s Cassini orbiter spacecraft, a team of planetary geologists has identified and mapped the major geological units...

The moons of our Solar System are brimming with unusual landscapes. However, sometimes they look a little more familiar, as in this new radar image from the Cassini orbiter. The image shows dark streaks carved into dunes reminiscent of those we might find on a beach on Earth, or raked with flowing lines in a Japanese Zen garden — but this scene is actually taking place on Saturn’s moon Titan. While our sand is composed of silicates, the ‘sand’ of these alien dunes is formed from grains of organic materials about the same size as particles of our beach sand. The small size and smoothness of these grains means that the flowing lines carved into the dunes show up as dark to the human eye. While previous images have spotted these eerily familiar patterns on Titan's dunes, this new image (colorized) shows them in greater detail. The image was obtained by Cassini's radar mapper on July 10, 2013. The vertical seam near the center is an artifact of radar image data processing. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Sci-News.com.

Researchers Unravel Origin and Chemical Composition of Titan’s Mysterious Dunes

Oct 22, 2019 by News Staff

Vast longitudinal dunes up to 330 feet (100 m) in height in the equatorial deserts of Saturn’s moon Titan are the Solar System’s most monumental surface...

An artist’s conception of the 20 newly-discovered Saturnian moons. Image credit: Carnegie Institution for Science.

Astronomers Discover Twenty New Saturnian Moons and You Can Help Name Them

Oct 8, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii have found 20 new moons orbiting Saturn. The discovery brings the total number of known Saturnian moons...

This artist’s painting of the south polar region of Enceladus shows massive jets of water ice being blasted into space. Image credit: Karl Kofoed / NASA.

Scientists Find Low-Mass Organic Compounds in Ice Grains from Enceladus’ Plume

Oct 3, 2019 by News Staff

Saturn’s moon Enceladus is erupting a plume of gas and ice grains from its south pole. According to new research using data from NASA’s Cassini mission,...

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Saturn’s Rings are as Old as Solar System Itself, Study Suggests

Sep 18, 2019 by News Staff

The famous ring system of Saturn may be much older than some planetary scientists think, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Astronomy. NASA’s...

Hubble observed Saturn on June 20, 2019 as the planet made its closest approach to Earth this year, at approximately 808 million miles away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Simon, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / M.H. Wong, University of California, Berkeley / OPAL Team.

Hubble Snaps New Image of Saturn and Its Ring System

Sep 12, 2019 by News Staff

Saturn is so beautiful that astronomers cannot resist using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to take yearly snapshots of the gas giant when it is at...

This artist’s concept of a lake at the north pole of Titan illustrates raised rims and rampartlike features such as those seen by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft around the moon’s Winnipeg Lacus. New research using Cassini radar data and modeling proposes that lake basins like these are likely explosion craters, which could have formed when liquid molecular nitrogen deposits within the crust warmed and quickly turned to vapor, blowing holes in the moon’s crust. This would have happened during a warming event (or events) that occurred in a colder, nitrogen-dominated period in Titan’s past. The study may provide evidence of these cold periods in Titan’s past, followed by a relative warming to conditions like those of today. Although Titan is frigid compared to Earth, methane in the atmosphere provides a greenhouse effect that warms the moon’s surface. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Titan’s Small Methane-Filled Lakes are Explosion Craters: Study

Sep 11, 2019 by News Staff

Small methane-filled lakes on the surface of Titan were likely formed by explosive, pressurized nitrogen just under the hazy moon’s surface, according...

It’s raining on Titan. Image credit: David A. Hardy, AstroArt / NASA.

Astronomers Detect Propadiene on Saturn’s Moon Titan

Aug 26, 2019 by Sergio Prostak

Astronomers using the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) have spotted propadiene — a colorless, flammable gas, best known as a fuel for specialized...

This illustration shows NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft-lander approaching a site on Titan. Image credit: NASA / JHU-APL.

NASA Announces Dragonfly Mission to Explore Saturn’s Hazy Moon Titan

Jul 2, 2019 by News Staff

NASA announced last week that it had selected the Dragonfly mission to explore the prebiotic organic chemistry and look for signs of life on Titan, the...

$This enhanced-color view of Enceladus is largely of the southern hemisphere and includes the south polar terrain at the bottom of the image. Ancient craters remain somewhat pristine in some locales, but have clearly relaxed in others. Northward-trending fractures, likely caused by a change in the moon’s rate of rotation and the consequent flattening of the moon’s shape, rip across the southern hemisphere. The south polar terrain is marked by a striking set of ‘blue’ fractures and encircled by a conspicuous and continuous chain of folds and ridges, testament to the forces within Enceladus that have yet to be silenced. The mosaic was created from 21 false-color frames taken during Cassini’s close approaches to Enceladus on March 9 and July 14, 2005. Images taken using filters sensitive to UV, visible and IR light (spanning wavelengths from 338 to 930 nm) were combined to create the individual frames. Image credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute.$

Enceladus’ Ocean Contains High Concentrations of Carbon Dioxide and Hydrogen, Scientists Say

Jun 25, 2019 by News Staff

Saturn’s small icy moon Enceladus contains a global subsurface ocean. According to new research from the University of Washington, the ice-covered ocean...

Cassini Team Delivers New Findings on Saturn’s Ring System

Jun 17, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Although NASA’s Cassini mission ended in 2017, science continues to flow from the data collected. In a series of papers in the journal Science, planetary...

A false-color view of Titan, a moon of Saturn surrounded by a thick orange haze. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / University of Idaho.

Planetary Scientists Spot Icy Corridor on Titan

May 1, 2019 by News Staff

A team of planetary researchers from the United States, Canada and Italy has detected an ice-rich linear feature of bedrock in the tropical region of Saturn’s...

An artist’s rendering of the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Image credit: Benjamin de Bivort, debivort.org / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Titan’s Lakes are Surprisingly Deep, Have Methane-Dominated Composition, Says Cassini Team

Apr 16, 2019 by News Staff

Radar data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have revealed that small lakes in the northern hemisphere of Saturn’s hazy moon Titan are surprisingly deep...

During super-close flybys of Saturn’s rings, Cassini inspected the mini-moons Pan and Daphnis in the A ring; Atlas at the edge of the A ring; Pandora at the edge of the F ring; and Epimetheus, which is bathed in material that fans out from the moon Enceladus. Image credit: NASA-JPL / Caltech.

Saturn’s Rings Coat Its Small Inner Moons, Cassini Researchers Say

Mar 29, 2019 by News Staff

Saturn’s main ring system is associated with a set of moons (Pan, Daphnis, Atlas, Pandora, and Epimetheus) that are either embedded within it, or interact...

An artist’s concept of a dust storm on Titan. Image credit: NASA / ESA / IPGP / Labex UnivEarthS / University Paris Diderot.

‘Cooking’ of Ancient Organics Created Titan’s Mysterious Atmosphere

Jan 24, 2019 by News Staff

New research tackles one of the greatest mysteries about Saturn’s moon Titan: the origin of its present-day nitrogen atmosphere. Published in the Astrophysical...

Saturn’s Great Northern Storm churning through the atmosphere in the planet’s northern hemisphere overtakes itself as it encircles the planet in this true-color view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. This picture, captured on February 25, 2011, was taken about 12 weeks after the storm began, and the clouds by this time had formed a tail that wrapped around the gas giant. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Length of Saturn’s Day Revised: 10 Hours 33 Minutes and 38 Seconds

Jan 22, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft observed Saturn’s ring system in unprecedented detail, and a team of planetary researchers from the University of California...

Saturn’s Rings are 10 to 100 Million Years Old, Much Younger than Planet

Jan 18, 2019 by News Staff

In the final phase of NASA’s Cassini mission, the spacecraft dived between Saturn and its innermost ring, at altitudes 1,616-2,423 miles (2,600-3,900...

Cassini Team Finds Evidence of Summer Rainfall at Titan’s North Pole

Jan 17, 2019 by News Staff

Observations from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft provide evidence of rainfall on the north pole of Saturn’s moon Titan. The rainfall would be the first...

With Saturn hanging in the blackness and sheltering NASA’ Cassini spacecraft from the Sun’s blinding glare, the probe viewed Saturn’s rings as never before, revealing previously unknown faint rings and even glimpsing its home world. Image credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute.

Saturn’s Rings are Disappearing at Rapid Pace

Dec 18, 2018 by News Staff

A team of planetary researchers from the United States and the United Kingdom has discovered that Saturn’s rings are younger than previously thought...

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