For more information about saturn check the Wikipedia article here
New observations have tracked the “rain” of charged water particles over Saturn spewing from its rings with unprecedented detail. The findings show that the rain is dispersed across a larger surface of the planet than previously thought, which might explain some peculiar meteorologic phenomenae. The study concludes that due to erosion, Saturn’s icy rings discharge [...]
Tue, Mar 5, 2013
I’m an absolute fan of the Cassini spacecraft – this is hands down my favorite mission. I mean, it’s been providing us incredibly valuable information for years now, in a very interesting area of our solar system, the Jupiter-Saturn area. This mission is one of the main reasons why we now believe places like Europa [...]
Wed, Feb 20, 2013
During a chance encounter with an unusually strong blast of solar wind at Saturn, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft detected particles being accelerated to ultra-high energies (like those at the LHC); this acceleration is similar to that which takes place around distant supernovas and provides a valuable in-situ study environment. The Cassini spacecraft is an absolutely stunning [...]
Tue, Feb 5, 2013
Iapetus is the third largest moon of Saturn, with a radius of about 42% that of our moon, and a mass that weighs up to only 2.5%. But Iapetus has a number of shocking features, unique throughout the entire solar system. The Walnut Moon This is the equatorial ridge that runs along the center of [...]
Tue, Nov 27, 2012
Seems like Saturn and its moons make up for a veritable gamer’s paradise after infrared imaging of the moon’s Tethys surface revealed a pattern that bears an uncanny resemblance to the 1980s video arcade emblem. Actually, this is the second time the Pacman feature has been spotted in the Saturn system, which suggests Saturn and its [...]
Fri, Oct 26, 2012
The Cassini spacecraft recorded the aftermath of the largest, hottest gas vortex ever recorded in our solar system, making astrophysicists think there’s much more to Saturn’s atmosphere than meets the eye. The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft (often just called Cassini) is a robotic ship sent out to monitor the Saturn system. It sent out surprising, valuable data [...]
Tue, Oct 2, 2012
In a dazzling new photo delivered by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, Saturn can be admired in new black and white perspective, as its southern reaches are draped in the shadow of the huge planet’s rings. The near-infrared photo was snapped on June 15 by the Cassini probe, a spacecraft launched in 1997 part of an international collaborative effort [...]
Tue, Oct 2, 2012
Rovers, like Curiosity, have been great for gathering samples and studying the terrain and atmosphere of distant worlds, but what about environments less favorable to wheeled machines? An interesting concept has been unveiled recently, in which scientists propose landing a sort of robotic boat on Titan’s largest methane lake, in order to have a physical [...]
Mon, Jul 30, 2012
Planetary scientist Kelsi Singer initially studied satellite photographs of Saturn’s icy moon Iapetus‘ surface looking for stress fractures in the moon’s ice, what she found in process however was far more interesting. Huge landslides, stretching across tens of miles across the moon’s surface were observed, not in one, but multiple locations, hinting this is a common phenomenon [...]
Fri, Jun 29, 2012
Last year, we reported on this incredible study from NASA scientists, where the possibility of a vast ocean of water beneath the surface of Titan, one of Saturn’s moon, was discussed. The study was in its incipient form, and now researchers have released a new report in which they conclude it’s very much likely that a huge [...]
Tue, Mar 20, 2012
Images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have enabled scientists for the first time to create a correlation between spraying of jets of water vapor from fissures on Saturn’s moon Enceladus with Saturn’s gravity and the way it creates stress on the fissure. “This new work gives scientists insight into the mechanics of these picturesque jets at [...]
Mon, Mar 19, 2012
If you think today’s urban air, thickened with noxious smog, is terrible, just imagine how the Earth was filled in a shroud of hydrocarbons some 2.5 billion years ago. Back then, a haze dominated by methane engulfed the atmosphere such that light could barely reach the ground, similarly to what can be seen today on [...]
Tue, Mar 6, 2012
Cassini has sent some new remarkable pictures which brilliantly illustrate the difference in size between Saturn and Titan, its largest moon. Saturn dwarfs its moon easily, even though Titan, at 3,200 miles across, is bigger than Earth’s moon, which has a diameter of only 2159 miles. If you look really closely above Saturn’s rings, there [...]
Mon, Mar 5, 2012
It’s been less than a month since we published the last thing about the Cassini probe, and the amazing spacecraft has done it again; this time it detected a thin, oxygen atmosphere, on a moon of Saturn – Dione. The study was published in the Geophysical Research Letters At 1122 km in diameter, Dione is [...]
Wed, Feb 15, 2012
If you ask me, this looks almost too beautiful to be real. This picture is by far one of the best we’ll see this year, capturing Saturn’s moons Rhea and Titan. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.2 million miles from Titan. Click it for full size.
Fri, Oct 7, 2011
Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun, is a definite oddball of the solar system. It has its axis titled by a whopping 98 degrees, which makes it orbit on its side. The general accepted theory is that a big impact with an object several times the size that of the Earth nodged its axis [...]
Wed, Oct 5, 2011
As the winter ski season is rapidly approaching, snow sports enthusiasts all over the world are already planing their trips, on a quest to find the most intense slop. Skiers need not to look farther, as Cassini scientists have announced that the probe has transmitted data which suggests Enceladus, Saturn’s icy moon, is coated by [...]
Tue, Sep 13, 2011
On July 29th the Cassini orbiter probe captured a stunning glimpse of five of Saturn’s satellites beautifully aligned. Cassini has been sending incredible photos of Saturn and its surroundings since 2004, as well as remarkable insights like the discovery of a salty ocean under one of its moon’s surface. Click the photo for a larger [...]
Fri, Sep 9, 2011
This amazing picture was taken by the Cassini probe, as it looked back on the eclipsing Sun. If you look carefully, you can see Earth just above the bright rings. This picture was taken during Saturn’s ‘night time’, when the planet is partly lit by light reflected from its own majestic ring system. Via Universe [...]
Wed, Jul 27, 2011
For the past 14 years, astronomers have been scratching their heads trying to find out just where does the water in Saturn’s upper atmosphere comes from; now, ESA’s Herschel space observatory has solved that mystery – the water is expelled from Enceladus, one of the planet’s moons. Enceladus is eliminating about 250 kilograms of water [...]
Thu, Jun 23, 2011
Launched in 1997 on a mission to study Saturn and its satellites, the Casisni spacecraft reached the system in 2004. Since then it has provided numerous invaluable scientific findings regarding the second largest planet in our solar system, and other important scientific findings alike. One such finding was detailed in a recently published study, which [...]
Tue, May 10, 2011
Titan is one strange place; it’s a satellite, but it’s bigger than Mercury, and it’s also the only satellite known to have a dense atmosphere. Furthermore, aside from Earth, it’s the only place where evidence of liquid has been found on the surface. Now, after studying some abnormalities in the rotation of Saturn’s largest moon, [...]
Thu, Mar 17, 2011
On Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, precipitations under the form of methane has scientists staggered. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, through the use of its infrared camera, detected signs of heavy spring rain of the highly flammable liquefied natural gas sprinkling across vast fields of dunes near Titan’s equator. “They see for the very first time evidence of [...]
Wed, Feb 24, 2010
There are many things we have yet to find out about Saturn, but the Cassini probe has definitely shed some light on the planet, and will surely do the same in the following years. The most recent flyby showed a significant number of geysers just waiting to pop out from under the surface – even [...]
Fri, Dec 18, 2009
As I was writing in a previous post, Titan is quite unique, in that aside from our planet it’s the only place in our solar system where significant quantities of liquid are to be found (though most are liquid ethane and methane). That doesn’t seem to make much of a difference considering the chemistry of [...]
Tue, Mar 11, 2008
The Cassini spacecraft has made numerous valuable discoveries along the time, such as the ‘building blocks’ of life on Titan, as well as the mountains there, and the partial rings of Saturn, and now scientists eagerly await the dive of the probe into the water plum of Enceladus, a moon of Saturn. This will be [...]
Mon, Feb 25, 2008
There are still so many things we don’t know about our solar system, and if by some way we manage to acquire information about it, probably many mysteries would be solved. Still, it’s always nice to see that scientists are not wasting time and almost every week they find something incredible. For example, gaps in [...]
Wed, Dec 26, 2007
Titan is a constant point of interest and scientists find out more fascinating things about this moon of Saturn almost every week. By analyzing images from NASA’s Cassini Radar instrument, a Brigham Young University professor helped discover and analyze mountains on Saturn’s largest moon, additional evidence that it has some of the most earthlike processes of [...]
Thu, Nov 29, 2007
Titan is in the spotlight again. The Cassini probe has provided once more valuable data that scientists are analysing; the data seems to confirm the fact that there are heavy negative ions in the upper regions of Titan’s atmosphere. These could be the organic building blocks for molecules and this discovery is unexpected because of [...]
Thu, Oct 4, 2007
This is Saturn’s Moon – the largest moon of Saturn, the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere and the only object other than Earth for which clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found – and these are just a few of the reasons which make studying it more [...]
Some photos of the amazing sun halo hovering over NYC
CT scan images caterpillar to butterfly metamorphosis in 3-D
Record level atmospheric CO2. Reaches 400 ppm for the first time in 3 million years
Neurobiologist can see in 3-D after being stuck in 2-D for 48 years. [amazing brain adaption]
Women may live longer than men due to stronger immune system
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Thu, Apr 11, 2013
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