Latest Exploration of Saturn Stories

NASA scientists are marveling over the extent of ruffles and dust clouds revealed in the rings of Saturn during the planet's equinox last month. Scientists once thought the rings were almost completely flat, but new images reveal the heights of some newly discovered bumps in the rings are as high as the Rocky Mountains. NASA released the images Monday."It's like putting on 3-D glasses and seeing the third dimension for the first time," said Bob Pappalardo, Cassini project scientist...

In 1918, magician extraordinaire Harry Houdini created a sensation when he made a 10,000 pound elephant disappear before a mystified audience of over 5,200 at New York's famed Hippodrome theatre. But a vanishing pachyderm is nothing compared to the magnificent illusion to be performed by our solar system's own sixth rock from the sun on Aug. 11. On that day, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, the planet Saturn, with no help from either Jupiter or Uranus, will make its...

Data collected during two close flybys of Saturn's moon Enceladus by NASA's Cassini spacecraft add more fuel to the fire about the Saturnian ice world containing sub-surface liquid water. The data collected by Cassini's Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer during Enceladus flybys in July and Oct. 2008, were released in the July 23 issue of the journal Nature."When Cassini flew through the plume erupting from Enceladus on October 8 of last year, our spectrometer was able to sniff out many...

The Cassini mission, a joint venture of NASA and the European and Italian space agencies has been orbiting Saturn for five Earth years as of Tuesday. NASA officials said that is about one sixth of a Saturnian year -- enough time for the spacecraft to have observed seasonal changes on the planet, its moons and sunlight's angle on the dramatic rings. Cassini passed through a gap in the rings as it entered orbit on June 30, 2004, NASA said. It finished its prime mission in 2008 and continues to...

The U.S. space agency's Cassini spacecraft has produced new movies and images of Saturn's moon Titan, providing new glimpses of its Earth-like landscapes. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the new flyover topographic maps were made from stereo pairs of radar images by Cassini radar team member Randy Kirk of the Astrogeology Science Center at the U.S. Geological Survey. NASA said Kirk used some of the 20 or so areas where two or more overlapping radar measurements were...

U.S. space agency scientists say the Cassini spacecraft has successfully switched to a backup set of propulsion thrusters as it orbits Saturn. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the late Wednesday swap was performed because of degradation in the performance of the primary thrusters, which had been in use since Cassini's launch in 1997. The space agency said the switch marked only the second time in Cassini's 11 years of flight that its engineering teams have gone to a...

Titan's Volcanoes Give Nasa Spacecraft Chilly Reception PASADENA, Calif. "“ Data collected during several recent flybys of Titan by NASA's Cassini spacecraft have put another arrow in the quiver of scientists who think the Saturnian moon contains active cryovolcanoes spewing a super-chilled liquid into its atmosphere. The information was released today during a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, Calif."Cryovolcanoes are some of the most intriguing features in...

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The closer scientists look at Saturn's small moon Enceladus, the more they find evidence of an active world. The most recent flybys of Enceladus made by NASA's Cassini spacecraft have provided new signs of ongoing changes on and around the moon. The latest high-resolution images of Enceladus show signs that the south polar surface changes over time. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Close views of the southern...

The closer scientists look at Saturn's small moon Enceladus, the more they find evidence of an active world. The most recent flybys of Enceladus made by NASA's Cassini spacecraft have provided new signs of ongoing changes on and around the moon. The latest high-resolution images of Enceladus show signs that the south polar surface changes over time.Close views of the southern polar region, where jets of water vapor and icy particles spew from vents within the moon's distinctive "tiger...

A team of astronomers said on Thursday that supersonic plumes of gas and dust shooting off one of Saturn's moons suggest strong evidence of liquid water, a key building block of life.The new discovery adds to the growing push to further explore the moon Enceladus, as some believe it is one of the solar system's most compelling places for potential life.NASA astronomers estimated through images from the Cassini probe that the mysterious plumes shooting from Enceladus' icy terrain contained...