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ScienceSpace & SpaceflightEnceladus’s Ice Volcanoes Are Feeding Saturn’s Rings
Saturn’s ice moon Enceladus is being slowly devoured by the gas giant’s rings, according to a series of new NASA images that show ghostly tendrils escaping the moon’s cryo-volcanoes and shooting off into space. Whoa. Enceladus may be a 310-mile across baby of a moon, but it’s been enjoying a lot of buzz lately. Like … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
io9
The Mystery Of Titan’s Wrong-Way Dunes May Have Finally Been Solved
On Saturn’s largest moon, a mystery has unfolded. Large sand dunes stretch across Titan’s surface facing East — but the winds above blow in just the opposite direction, West. What’s going on here? The answer, say researchers at the University of Washington, is not in the winds at all: It’s in the planet’s methane, and … Continued
By Ria Misra -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
Why the Length of Saturn’s Day Is So Hard to Measure
The length of a planet’s day seems like such a simple number, a basic piece of information that should accompany any solar system diagram. But probes flying past Saturn have turned up oddly conflicting numbers. Scientist have now calculated the most definitive length of Saturn’s day yet, which is 6 minutes shorter than previously thought. … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
io9
How Many Rings Do You See In This Image of Saturn?
We all know that Saturn is the planet with the rings, but how many did you think there were? In this photo, by the Cassini spacecraft on January 8, 2015, you can spend a good couple of hours trying to count them. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute From NASA, an explanation of where structures inside … Continued
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ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
Look How Tiny Saturn’s Moon Prometheus Is
This may just be another glorious picture of Saturn’s rings—but it also serves to show just how large the planet is. Can you make out its moon Prometheus in the image? Down in the lower left-hand corner, there’s a bright white spot. It’s not a broken pixel on your screen, but Saturn’s moon, Prometheus. Discovered … Continued
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io9
A Warm Seafloor On Enceladus Makes It A Prime Candidate For Life
A new analysis of Cassini spacecraft data points to the distinct possibility that Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus exhibits hydrothermal activity on its seafloor. It’s a discovery that significantly bolsters the moon’s status as a potentially habitable object. Enceladus has been an intriguing object of study ever since plumes of escaping water vapor were discovered in … Continued
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Tech News
It’s Time to Go Alien Hunting on Titan
Move over Europa, there’s another moon out to claim the title of first place we’ll discover extraterrestrial life. New research from Cornell University finds that alien microbes could, just maybe, eke it out on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. But these critters wouldn’t be like anything we’ve ever seen before—not even close. That’s because Titan, awash … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
io9How NASA Might Use A Robotic Sub To Explore Titan’s Methane Seas
At a recent advanced concepts symposium, NASA scientists unveiled a conceptual plan to explore the frigid methane and ethane seas on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, using a robotic submarine. The details were presented at the 2015 NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Symposium in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Titan is an intriguing destination for exploration owing … Continued
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io9Here’s What It Looks Like To Fall To Titan From Space
In honor of the Huygens probe’s historic 2005 landing on the surface of Titan (Saturn’s largest satellite, and the only moon in our solar system with a dense atmosphere), NASA has released a movie that recreates, with data collected by Huygens and the Cassini orbiter, a dramatic approach of the moon’s surface from deep space. … Continued
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io9
We’ve Been Wrong About Saturn’s Exact Location For Centuries
Looking at a map of our solar system, you might have felt comfortable saying that we know (and have known for sometime) exactly where Saturn is. But a brand new ultra-precise measure that tracks the location of the planet to its exact pinpoint in space shows that we’ve been off, by perhaps up to 100 … Continued
By Ria Misra -
Tech NewsSploidThe mysterious eye of the cosmos is watching you
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Dayis back with a winner: Saturn’s crescent phase captured by Cassini with its rings and the moon Rhea. It looks like a menacing eye from a colossal evil being from another dimension opening in the darkness of space, watching all of us. There’s an amazing movie too: SPLOID is delicious … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech NewsSploid
Two-mile-high structures rising on Saturn’s rings
Someone on Reddit posted this old November 2010 image by the Cassini spacecraft. It shows 2-mile-high (3.5-kilometer) structures rising on Saturn’s B ring’s outer edge. We talked about this back then, but it’s a great peg to show this cool artist impression of what it would look like from the ring itself: Another finding from … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
io9
Two Of Saturn’s Moons Play Hide-And-Seek In This Stunning Image
Ever get the feeling that someone is staring over your shoulder? The Cassini spacecraft captured this rare view of Saturn’s moon Tethys peeking out from behind its sibling, Rhea. Tethys appears brighter because its surface is covered in ice, which gives it a higher albedo, or reflectivity. Scientists believe that water ice jets emerging from … Continued
By Mark Strauss -
Tech NewsSploid
Impressive new image of Saturn from above the ecliptic plane
Our friend Val Klavans sent me a Christmas present this morning: A color photo of Saturn as you would have seen it if you were riding the spacecraft Cassini on December 21, 2014. Saturn’s north polar hexagon stands out prominently while the rings encircle the planet. You can see the hexagon storm on its north … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
io9
A Striking View Of The Dark Side Of Saturn
The Cassini Orbiter captures a different view of Saturn, in which the planet and its rings seem to vanish into darkness. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab explains exactly what we’re seeing here: Saturn’s main rings, seen here on their “lit” face, appear much darker than normal. That’s because they tend to scatter light back toward its … Continued
By Lauren Davis -
io9
One Reason To Be Optimistic About The Near Future Of Space Exploration
In the early ’80s, Voyager did a flyby of Saturn’s moons and sent us back some tantalizing, but garbled, photos. Now, those same pictures are giving us one really great reason to feel pretty good about just what we might be able see in the next few decades. Top image: Enceladus Mapped, NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/Lunar … Continued
By Ria Misra -
io9
Saturn’s Moons As You’ve Never Seen Them
What you’re seeing here is an image of Saturn’s moon Dione as it passes in front of the moon Titan. The detail is breathtaking, and you can just see the haze of Titan’s atmosphere glowing around the curve of the lake-covered moon. This Cassini spacecraft image was calibrated by Gordon Ugarkovic, who offers this information … Continued
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Tech NewsSploidWhy Orion’s launch is the best news for humanity in a long time
I have always been sad that I never got to see the beginning of humanity’s ultimate journey—and even sadder to realize that in 1972 we abandoned a path that could have possibly gotten us to other planets by now. On December 5, 2014, we opened the gate to that path again. We should rejoice—we are … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
io9
We Can Thank Saturn for Helping Life to Evolve on Earth
Models show that if the ringed planet’s orbit was just 10% closer in, or even just slightly tilted, its mass would have tugged the Earth into a wildly elongated orbit, causing it to spend part of each year outside the habitable zone. But it’s yet another factor that could explain the apparent dearth of life … Continued