News Archive / Tagged: Saturn

• Dust and ice from Saturn’s rings are falling on nearby moons

  Laurel KornfeldApril 1st, 2019

  Particles of dust and ice from Saturn's rings are falling onto five of the giant planet's tiny moons, all of which are located close to and even within the ring system.

• Cassini data reveals Saturn’s rotation rate, age of rings

  Laurel KornfeldJanuary 26th, 2019

  Data collected by the Cassini spacecraft in its final oribts has enabled scientists to accurately calculate Saturn's rotation rate and the age of its rings.

• Cassini’s final close orbits of Saturn providing new data on ringed world

  Jim SharkeyOctober 15th, 2018

  More than a year after it concluded its 20 year voyage of discovery, the Cassini mission is still providing details about Saturn.

• Cassini data reveals another feature that suggests Titan is similar to Earth

  Laurel KornfeldSeptember 25th, 2018

  Is Titan similar to Earth? New data from the Cassini orbiter suggests it is.

• Saturn’s moon Enceladus has conditions that could support microbial life

  Laurel KornfeldJuly 4th, 2018

  Complex organic molecules have been discovered in the plumes of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The data transmitted back to Earth by the Cassini Saturn orbiter, which ended its service above the ringed world on Sept. 16, 2017.

• NASA shows ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’ image captured by Cassini

  Joe LatrellApril 25th, 2018

  In a view reminiscent of rainbows on Earth, NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured this image of Saturn's rings. The photo was taken by the spacecraft on Aug. 22, 2009. According to NASA, this natural-color view was created by merging spectral filters of red, green, and blue into the final image.

• Saturn’s moon Titan has ‘sea level’ like Earth

  Jim SharkeyJanuary 20th, 2018

  Researchers using data from NASA's Cassini mission have discovered a striking similarity between Earth and Saturn's moon Titan. Just as the surface of Earth's oceans lies at an average elevation referred to as "sea level", Titan's seas also lie at an average elevation. Titan is the only world in our solar system other than Earth known to have stable liquid on its surface. Instead of water, Titan's lakes and seas are filled with hydrocarbons, mostly  methane and ethane. Water ice, covered by a layer of solid organic material, forms the bedrock surrounding these lakes and seas.

• Titan’s haze captured in Cassini photo

  Jason RhianJanuary 17th, 2018

  Downtown L.A. has got nothing on Saturn's moon Titan, at least in terms of smoggy haze that is. Imagery captured by the Cassini spacecraft prior to its plunge into Saturn's atmosphere on Sept. 15, 2017 shows a world blanketed in a dense mist.

• NASA releases Cassini’s farewell view of Saturn

  Jim SharkeyNovember 28th, 2017

  During the final leg of NASA's Cassini mission at Saturn, the spacecraft took a lingering last look at the planet that has been its home for more than 13 years by snapping a series of images that has been assembled into a new mosaic.

• Reconstructing Cassini’s final moments

  Jim SharkeyOctober 21st, 2017

  During the Cassini spacecraft's final plunge into Saturn's upper atmosphere on Sept.15, 2017, the spacecraft live-streamed data from eight of its science instruments, providing readings from a variety of engineering systems. While it will take time to analyze all of the data from its plunge, engineers with the Cassini team already have a pretty clear understanding of how the spacecraft behaved as it went in.

• Their words: Cassini’s Hunter Waite and the quest to look beyond

  Matthew KuhnsSeptember 24th, 2017

  PASADENA, Calif. — Peering through the atmospheres of other worlds to determine what they are made of is difficult enough, but to do so reliably for 13 years is an astonishing accomplishment. Hunter Waite, the INMS team leader at SwRI, spoke with SpaceFlight Insider about the mission in the lead-up to Cassini's "final bow".

• Their words: Cassini’s Linda Spilker on mission’s legacy

  Matthew KuhnsSeptember 23rd, 2017

  PASADENA, Calif. — When Cassini took its final bow into the upper atmosphere of the gas giant Saturn, a good many people who had labored on the nearly 20-year-long mission were forced to say goodbye to a machine that had become all but a member of the family. One thing that was not lost that day was the wealth of knowledge that Cassini had sent back to those it left behind on Earth.

• Gallery: Controllers receive last signals before Cassini spacecraft demise

  Derek RichardsonSeptember 15th, 2017

  PASADENA, Calif. — With its fuel nearly depleted, Cassini made a final plunge toward Saturn to get as much science as possible before burning up in the planet's atmosphere. Flight controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) lost telemetry with the spacecraft, as expected, at about 7:55 a.m. EDT (11:55 GMT) Sept. 15, 2017.

• LIVE: Cassini spacecraft ends its mission at Saturn

  Derek RichardsonSeptember 15th, 2017

  NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is making a final plunge into Saturn’s atmosphere to end its mission some 13 years after reaching the ringed world. Flight controllers at NASA are receiving the probe’s final data before it burns up in the planet’s atmosphere.

• Cassini has uncovered a wealth of data on Saturn’s rings

  Laurel KornfeldAugust 19th, 2017

  NASA's Cassini spacecraft, now conducting its final orbits between Saturn and its rings, is plunging further than ever into the giant planet's atmosphere. Over the last 13 years studying the Saturn system, the spacecraft has discovered a wealth of information about the planet's rings.