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-CaltechEnceladus, encased in a thick ice shell and surrounded by a vast ocean, is a strong contender for potentially containing extraterrestrial life. Researchers have concluded that without even requiring a landing on this tiny world, a future mission…

Enceladus was captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft during its close flyby. Here’s what you need to know. NASA has shared a stunning snapshot of one of Saturn's Moons called Enceladus. Considered the most reflective celestial body in our solar system, Enceladus is an active moon with a surface completely covered in ice. NASA estimates that the ice stretches for about 20-25 kilometers deep into the surface. Enceladus is Saturn's 6th largest Moon in size and the 19th largest Moon in our solar system.As a result of…

The Cassini spacecraft caught a view of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus, which has a subsurface ocean hidden under its frozen surface. The tiny moon's cracked surface may appear like rivers carved into it, but scientists think it's really heated spots in the crust where water ice and gases shoot up from the ocean floor and feed Saturn's E ring. Possible hydrothermal vents leading to the ocean floor may be found at the bottom of some of these cracks. Saturn's moon Enceladus is the sixth biggest in size (19th…

Between 1996 and 2000, NASA Hubble captured a number of images of Saturn to study how the gas giant's rings change as it travels around the Sun for 29 years. Similar to Earth's 23-degree tilt, Saturn's…

Scientists have found an ingenious way for NASA to find alien life on Enceladus, one of the moons of Saturn which would be done without even landing on the celestial sphere. Are there aliens out there? The question of whether we are alone in this world has pushed the scientific community to devoting ever greater resources on the answer. We have searched in far away galaxies looking for planets which are similar to Earth in composition and are placed in similar orbits in their solar system. However, NASA now believes…

Researchers using the James Webb Space Telescope and the W. M. Keck Observatory have teamed up to study Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, and observe the way that clouds move around it. Early preview results of this research have now been released, which have not yet been peer-reviewed. By bringing together space-based observations and ground-based observations, researchers were able to see how the clouds changed. Webb gathered data in the infrared using its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument, and Keck provided…

By Margaret W. Carruthers, Space Telescope Science Institute December 3, 2022Images of Saturn’s moon Titan, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam instrument November 4, 2022. Left: Image using F212N, a 2.12-micron filter sensitive to Titan’s lower atmosphere. The bright spots are prominent clouds in the northern hemisphere. Right: Color composite image using a combination of NIRCam filters: Blue=F140M (1.40 microns), Green=F150W (1.50 microns), Red=F200W (1.99 microns), Brightness=F210M (2.09 microns).…

The Webb Space Telescope snapped images of Saturn’s moon Titan last month, which are now released for our viewing pleasure. The images offer a newly detailed view of Titan’s atmospheric makeup and even elements of its strange surface.The telescope’s NIRCam instrument, which images in the near-infrared range, captured the views. They show clouds in Titan’s atmosphere (whimsically named A and B in annotated images) but also a blurry look at Kraken Mare, which is thought to be a methane sea, as well as dark sand dunes.More…

Titan has always been an intriguing satellite. Not only is this moon that orbits Saturn believed to be intricate and complex, but it also looks eerily similar to the Earth whenever you look at it. In the latest James Webb images of Titan, the comparison to Earth is even more apt, as the planet looks like a twin of our own. Titan is Saturn’s largest moon and has thus been one of the most intriguing targets for observation around the ringed planet. In the latest images captured of the planetary satellite, an…

The chances of life on Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, may have risen thanks to the discovery of a new important element within its oceans. According to new research published in September, the moon’s oceans may be enriched with phosphorus, one of the important elements that life as we know it relies on. The new research was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. According to the researchers, a new model created based on the latest data gathered on Enceladus appears to…