Latest Moons of Saturn Stories

Scientists using the Cassini spacecraft's  Magnetospheric Imaging instrument (MIMI) have detected a new, temporary radiation belt  at Saturn, located around the orbit of its moon Dione at about 377 000 km from the center of the planet. The discovery will be presented at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam by Dr Elias Roussos on Monday September 14.Radiation belts, like Earth's Van Allen belts, have been discovered at Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.  However, to...

A storm cell the size of India was identified on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, scientists from the California Institute of Technology said. The methane cloud mass spotted over a cold desert area likely played a major part in shaping the area with significant amounts of precipitation, Caltech scientists wrote in the journal Nature. The cell was found in April 2008 by Emily Schaller, now a Hubble postdoctoral fellow at the University of Arizona, Caltech and NASA said in a release Saturday....

The jointly owned U.S. and European spacecraft Cassini has transmitted raw images back to Earth of the instant Saturn reached its equinox.Scientists are now studying the pictures in hopes they might reveal new information about the planet's ring system.Equinox occurs when the Sun crosses a planet's equator, creating days and nights of equal length.  During Saturn's equinox, the Sun's angle over the planet is lowered, revealing new objects and irregularities as shadows on the otherwise flat...

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...

A new study has revealed the origins of tiger stripes and a subsurface ocean on Enceladus - one of Saturn's many moons. These geological features are believed to be the result of the moon's unusual chemical composition and not a hot core, shedding light on the evolution of planets and guiding future space exploration.Dr Dave Stegman, a Centenary Research Fellow in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne, led the study and says that part of the intrigue with Enceladus is...

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...

PASADENA, Calif., June 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- For the first time, scientists working on NASA's Cassini mission have detected sodium salts in ice grains of Saturn's outermost ring. Detecting salty ice indicates that Saturn's moon Enceladus, which primarily replenishes the ring with material from discharging jets, could harbor a reservoir of liquid water -- perhaps an ocean -- beneath its surface. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO ) Cassini discovered the...

Researchers in Europe released a new report on Wednesday that suggests the geyser seen on the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus could be fed by a salty ocean underneath the surface.Writing in the journal Nature, scientists said that the discovery could support theories of the existence of extraterrestrial life.Scientists first discovered Enceladus' habit of spewing a mix of water vapor, gas and tiny grains of ice into space in 2005 with observations from the Cassini spacecraft.Enceladus is...

The most exotic frozen cocktails on Earth won't be found in a chic restaurant or trendy bar. Scientists are mixing up these icy concoctions in a rather nondescript laboratory not much bigger than a janitor's closet. The surroundings are spartan, but the recipes they're using are out of this world.Researchers in JPL's Ice Physical Properties Laboratory are recreating the ices found on the frigid bodies that inhabit the cold, outer reaches of our solar system. The goal is to study up-close the...