All Articles Tagged As: cassini

NASA extends Cassini's grand tour of Saturn (4/18/2008)

NASA is extending the international Cassini-Huygens mission by two years ...> Full Article

Ocean may exist beneath Titan's crust (3/27/2008)

Cassini has discovered evidence that points to the existence of an underground ocean of water and ammonia on Saturn's moon Titan. The findings were made using radar measurements of Titan's rotation. ...> Full Article

Saturn's moon Rhea may have rings, too, Cassini discovers (3/8/2008)

UK scientists and international colleagues using NASA's Cassini spacecraft which is currently orbiting Saturn have found evidence of material orbiting Rhea, Saturn's second largest moon. This finding is the first time rings may have been found around a moon. ...> Full Article

Saturn's Giant Sponge: One Of Saturn's Rings Does The Housecleaning (2/20/2008)

One of Saturn's rings does housecleaning, soaking up material gushing from the fountains on Saturn's tiny ice moon Enceladus, according to new observations from the Cassini spacecraft. ...> Full Article

Titan's surface organics surpass oil reserves on Earth (2/14/2008)

Saturn's orange moon Titan has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, according to new Cassini data. The hydrocarbons rain from the sky, collecting in vast deposits that form lakes and dunes. ...> Full Article

Saturn's 'hot hexagon' surprise (1/6/2008)

Saturn's chilly north pole boasts a hot spot in the middle of its mysterious polar hexagon, according to new data from the Cassini spacecraft. The discovery could shed light on the atmospheric formations found on other planets such as Jupiter, Neptune and Mars. ...> Full Article

Scientist leads discovery of mountains on Saturn's largest moon (12/25/2007)

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 any celestial body in the solar system. ...> Full Article

Return to Europa: A closer look is possible (12/18/2007)

Jupiter's moon Europa is just as far away as ever, but new research is bringing scientists closer to being able to explore its tantalizing ice-covered ocean and determine its potential for harboring life. ...> Full Article

Planetary scientists close in on Saturn's elusive rotation (12/17/2007)

Somewhere deep below Saturn's cloud tops, the planet rotates at a constant speed. Determining this interior period of rotation has proven extremely complicated. Now, with new Cassini results, a team of European scientists have taken an important step forward. ...> Full Article

Saturn's Rings May Be Old As Solar System, According To New Cassini Observations (12/16/2007)

New observations by NASA's Cassini spacecraft indicate the rings of Saturn, once thought to have formed during the age of the dinosaurs, instead may have been created roughly 4.5 billion years ago when the solar system was still under construction. ...> Full Article

Organic 'building blocks' discovered in Titan's atmosphere (12/1/2007)

Scientists analysing data gathered by the Cassini spacecraft have confirmed the presence of heavy negative ions in the upper regions of Titan's atmosphere. These particles may act as organic building blocks for even more complicated molecules and their discovery was completely unexpected because of the chemical composition of the atmosphere (which lacks oxygen and mainly consists of nitrogen and methane). The observation has now been verified on 16 different encounters and findings will be published in Geophysical Research Letters on November 28. ...> Full Article

First Known Belt Of Moonlets In Saturn's Rings Detected (10/29/2007)

A narrow belt harboring moonlets as large as football stadiums discovered in Saturn's outermost ring probably resulted when a larger moon was shattered by a wayward asteroid or comet eons ago. ...> Full Article

Cassini's new view of land of lakes and seas (10/12/2007)

The best views of the hydrocarbon lakes and seas on Saturn's moon Titan taken by the Cassini spacecraft are being released today. ...> Full Article

Cassini on the trail of a runaway mystery (10/10/2007)

Scientists are on the trail of Iapetus' mysterious dark side, which seems to be home to a bizarre 'runaway' process that is transporting vaporised water ice from the dark areas to the white areas of the Saturnian moon. ...> Full Article

Saturn's moon Iapetus is the Yin-Yang of the Solar System (9/16/2007)

Cassini scientists are poring through hundreds of images returned from the 10 September fly-by of Saturn's two-toned moon Iapetus. ...> Full Article

Cassini Flies By Saturn's Walnut-Shaped Moon Iapetus (9/14/2007)

Cassini completed its closest flyby of the odd moon Iapetus on Sept. 10, 2007. The spacecraft flew about 1,640 kilometers (1,000 miles) from Iapetus' surface and is returning amazing views of the bizarre moon. ...> Full Article

Could Enceladus's Icy Plumes Pose A Hazard To Cassini? (8/30/2007)

On 12th March 2008, Cassini will swing by Saturn's moon Enceladus at an altitude of less than 100 kilometres at the point of closest approach. This will give scientists and unprecedented opportunity to study the plumes of water vapour emanating from the "tiger stripe" fissures near the moon's south pole, but it has also given the Cassini team pause for thought as to whether ice grains lofted by the jets could damage the spacecraft. ...> Full Article

Saturn's skewed ring current (8/27/2007)

Images taken by Cassini's Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI) show that Saturn's ring current is a warped disc that balloons out of the equatorial plane on the planet's dayside and remains a thin disk that rises above the plane at larger distances on the nightside. Dr Stamatios "Tom" Krimigis, the Principal Investigator for the instrument, who is presenting images at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam on Thursday 23rd August, said, "Ring currents surround planets sort of like the brim of a hat. ...> Full Article

Cassini Finds Possible Origin of One of Saturn's Rings (8/4/2007)

Cassini scientists may have identified the source of one of Saturn's more mysterious rings. Saturn's G ring likely is produced by relatively large, icy particles that reside within a bright arc on the ring's inner edge. ...> Full Article