Saturns

Artist’s impression of the Cassini spacecraft flying through plumes erupting from the south pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. These plumes are much like geysers and expel a combination of water vapor, ice grains, salts, methane, and other organic molecules. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechInteraction between moon’s plumes and Saturn’s ring system explored with WebbEnceladus—a tiny, icy moon of <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="<div…

It’s a little strange to think of Saturn without its rings, but scientists have long believed that the planet’s iconic look was something it picked up in just the past few hundred million years. Further, three new studies digging deep into the rings say that they could disappear in a similar timescale, leaving the planet looking blander than it ever has during humanity’s time on Earth. The three new studies are all based on data captured by NASA’s Cassini mission. This mission has helped astronomers learn more…

This was Cassini’s view from orbit around Saturn on January 2, 2010. In this image, the rings on the night side of the planet have been brightened significantly to more clearly reveal their features. On the day side, the rings are illuminated both by direct sunlight, and by light reflected off Saturn’s cloud tops. This natural-color view is a composite of images taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft’s narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 1.4 million miles (2.3 million kilometers) from Saturn.…

A study co-authored by Southwest Research Institute Senior Research Scientist Dr. Jason Hofgartner explains the unusual radar signatures of icy satellites orbiting Jupiter and Saturn. Their radar signatures, which differ significantly from those of rocky worlds and most ice on Earth, have long been a vexing question for the scientific community. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRIScientists unveil solutions to enigmatic radar characteristics of Jupiter and Saturn’s moonsA collaborative investigation led by Dr. Jason Hofgartner,…

Saturn is the jewel of the solar system, with its magnificent rings and retinue of weird moons. It’s the faintest of the naked-eye planets—technically Uranus is sometimes bright enough to see, though you need good eyesight and a very dark site—but still fairly easy to pick out among the stars. If you’re an early riser (or a late partier), then now is a decent time to look for Saturn, not because it’s brighter or closer to Earth than usual but because it’s made some news recently. New research indicates its rings are…

Saturn's rings are one of the jewels of the Solar System, but it seems that their time is short and their existence fleeting.A new study suggests the rings are between 400 million and 100 million years old – a fraction of the age of the Solar System. This means we are just lucky to be living in an age when the giant planet has its magnificent rings. Research also reveals that they could be gone in another 100 million years.The rings were first observed in 1610 by the astronomer Galileo Galilei who, owing to the…

Sunlight filters through Saturn’s rings in sepia tones in this artful view from the Cassini spacecraft of the dark side of the rings. Those rays from the sun directly reflected from the lit side of the rings onto the planet strike and illuminate the night-side southern hemisphere. The densely populated B ring blocks much of the Sun’s light and thus looks quite dark. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science InstituteCU Boulder study reveals that <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt"…

Some of the biggest space missions of 2023 will teach us more about our solar system’s planets. But NASA has many more logs in the fire than you might expect. One mission that many are excited about will see a NASA-made robotic snake slithering its way through one of Saturn’s moons in search of signs of life. That snake is the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS), and it’s exactly what it sounds like – a long robotic snake that can traverse through different types of terrain, all while adapting to the…

Saturn has 83 confirmed moons! Among these, there is a Trojan moon known as Helene which is a small and faint moon. It is known as Trojan because it shares its orbit with another moon called Dione, which is hundreds of times larger than Helene. Today, NASA has shared a colourful image of Saturn's moon Helene as Astronomy Picture of the Day on April 30. In spite of its muted tones, Saturn's moon Helene remains a mystery. In 2012, the robotic Cassini spacecraft performed a close flyby of the small moon, capturing images of…

Ever since we first noticed it in the mid-1970s, scientists have been puzzled by Saturn's Lyman-alpha (Lyα) bulge: a particularly bright bar of ultraviolet light emitted by hydrogen atoms during a particular type of electronic transition.Now there's an explanation. A new study outlines how icy particle rain from Saturn's rings plays a role in heating the planet's upper atmosphere through further chemical reactions that we still don't fully understand.According to NASA, it's the first time we've observed this phenomenon…