Latest Cassini Stories

WASHINGTON, Oct. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Cassini spacecraft has tracked the aftermath of a rare massive storm on Saturn. Data reveal record-setting disturbances in the planet's upper atmosphere long after the visible signs of the storm abated, in addition to an indication the storm was more forceful than scientists previously thought. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Data from Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer (CIRS) instrument...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The European Space Agency (ESA) released an image of Saturn's rings on Monday provided by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Clumpy particles in the B-ring are in stark contrast to the delicately ordered ringlets of the rest of Saturn's rings. Saturn's B-ring is the largest and brightest of the gas giant's rings, the outer portion of which can be seen on the left side of the image. The moon, Mimas, which orbits Saturn once during every...

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online As NASA’s Cassini spacecraft continues its long-term visit of the sixth planet from the sun, it is continuing to surprise scientists with stunning images of the Saturnian environment. In the latest round of images, Cassini has shown the “true colors” of Saturn, and its largest moon Titan, in a spectacular fashion. One image captures the changing hues of Saturn’s northern and southern hemispheres as they pass from one...

Phoebe, one of Saturn’s 60+ moons, has been found to have planet-like properties, NASA scientists discovered while analyzing swarms of data collected and transmitted by the Cassini orbiter. New analysis of images of Phoebe lead scientists to theorize how the 140-mile-in-diameter rock started life. They suggest that it began its life as a planetoid in the Kuiper belt, a much larger version of the asteroid belt that sits on the outer edge of our planetary system. The scientists actually...

WASHINGTON, March 22, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum has bestowed its highest group honor, the Trophy for Current Achievement, on NASA's Cassini mission to Saturn. The annual award recognizes outstanding achievements in the fields of aerospace science and technology. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The trophy was presented Wednesday during an evening ceremony at the museum in Washington. Established in...

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has revealed a giant early-spring storm in Saturn's northern hemisphere that is so powerful it stretches around the entire planet. NASA said on Thursday that the storm has been wrecking havoc for months and shooting plumes of gas high into the planet's atmosphere. Cassini's radio and plasma wave science instruments first detected the large disturbance, and amateur astronomers tracked its emergency in December 2010, according to the space agency. NASA said the storm...

Saturn's icy moon Enceladus should not be one of the most promising places in our solar system to look for extraterrestrial life. Instead, it should have frozen solid billions of years ago. Located in the frigid outer solar system, it's too far from the sun to have oceans of liquid water -- a necessary ingredient for known forms of life -- on its surface.Some worlds, like Mars or Jupiter's moon Europa, give hints that they might harbor liquid water beneath their surfaces. Mars is about 4,200...

It appears flash flooding has paved streambeds in the Xanadu region of Saturn's moon Titan with thousands of sparkling crystal balls of ice, according to scientists with NASA's Cassini spacecraft. By analyzing the way the terrain has scattered radar beams, scientists deduce the spheres measure at least a few centimeters (inches) and maybe up to a couple of meters (yards) in diameter. The spheres likely originated as part of water-ice bedrock in higher terrain in Xanadu."What we believe...

On Feb. 13, 2010, NASA's Cassini spacecraft will make its closest examination yet of Mimas, an eyeball-shaped moon of Saturn that has also been likened to the Death Star of "Star Wars." The spacecraft will be returning the highest-resolution images yet of this battered satellite.Mimas bears the mark of a violent, giant impact from the past - the 140-kilometer-wide (88-mile-wide) Herschel Crater - and scientists hope the encounter will help them explain why the moon was not blown to...

NASA's Cassini Spacecraft has captured the first flash of sunlight reflected off a lake on Saturn's moon Titan, confirming the presence of liquid on the part of the moon dotted with many large, lake-shaped basins.Cassini scientists had been looking for the glint, also known as a specular reflection, since the spacecraft began orbiting Saturn in 2004. But Saturn's northern hemisphere, which has more lakes than the southern hemisphere, has been veiled in winter darkness. The sun only began to...