Latest Robin Canup Stories

New research suggests that the origin of Saturn's rings may be a case of cosmic murder. According to a new theory published on Sunday in the journal Nature, the rings are the only evidence left of an unnamed moon of Saturn's that disappeared about 4.5 billion years agoThe report said that Saturn robbed its outer layer of ice as the moon made its death spiral, which then formed rings. "Saturn was an accomplice and that produced the rings," study author Robin Canup, an astronomer at...

The rings of Saturn could have formed after a moon the size of Titan crashed into the developing planet, a researcher from the Southwest Research Institute (SWRI) in Boulder suggested earlier this week.Speaking during a meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Science in Pasadena, California, SWRI researcher Robin Canup suggested that the satellite likely had a mantle made of ice and a rocky core, and that tidal forces might have dislodged chunks of the mantle...

Each of our Solar System's outer gaseous planets hosts a system of multiple satellites, and these objects include Jupiter's volcanic Io and Europa with its believed subsurface ocean, as well as Titan with its dense and organic-rich atmosphere at Saturn. While individual satellite properties vary, the systems all share a striking similarity: the total mass of each satellite system compared to the mass of its host planet is very nearly a constant ratio, roughly 1:10,000. Research by scientists...

The evolution of Kuiper Belt objects, Pluto and its lone moon Charon may have something in common with Earth and our single Moon: a giant impact in the distant past.Astrobiology Magazine -- The evolution of Kuiper Belt objects, Pluto and its lone moon Charon may have something in common with Earth and our single Moon: a giant impact in the distant past. Dr. Robin Canup, assistant director of Southwest Research Institute's (SwRI) Department of Space Studies, argues for such an origin for the...