Saturn

Is There Microbial Life On Saturns Moon Enceladus?

March 28, 2012

Do underground oceans vent through the tiger stripes on Saturn's moon Enceladus? Long features dubbed tiger stripes are known to be spewing ice from the moon's icy interior into space, creating a cloud of fine ice particles over the moon's South Pole and creating Saturn's mysterious E-ring.

In a series of tantalizingly close flybys to the moon, named “Enceladus,” NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has revealed watery jets erupting from what may be a vast underground sea. These jets, which spew through cracks in the moon’s icy shell, could lead back to a habitable zone that is uniquely accessible in all the solar system. “More than 90 jets of all sizes near Enceladus’s south pole are spraying water vapor, icy particles, and organic compounds all over the place,” says Carolyn Porco, an award-winning planetary scientist and leader of the Imaging Science team for NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. “Cassini has...

NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft Captures Aurora’s On Saturn

March 28, 2012

By Michael Muracco

Since the NASA / ESA Cassini-Huygens spacecraft arrived at Saturn in 2004, astronomers and space scientists have been able to study the ringed planet and its moons in great detail. Now, for the first time, a team of planetary scientists have made simultaneous measurements of Saturn’s night side aurora, magnetic field, and associated charged particles. Together the fields and particle data provide information on the electric currents flowing that produce the emissions. Team leader Dr Emma Bunce of the University of Leicester will present the new work at the National Astronomy Meeting in Manchester on 27 March 2012. Generally,...

Saturn’s Moon Enceladus’s Dramatic Influence

September 22, 2011

By Michael Muracco

Water vapor and ice erupt from Saturn's moon Enceladus, the source of a newly discovered donut-shaped cloud around Saturn. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Saturn’s intriguing moon Enceladus pews out dramatic plumes of water vapor and ice. It possesses simple organic particles and may house liquid water beneath its surface. Its geyser-like jets create a gigantic halo of ice, dust and gas around Enceladus that helps feed Saturn’s E ring. Enceladus is the only moon in our solar system known to influence substantially the chemical composition of its parent planet. This June the European Space Agency using the Herschel Space Observatory found a huge donut-shaped cloud, or torus, of water vapor created by Enceladus encircling Saturn. The torus, which appears to be the...

Cassini Spacecraft Captures Breathtaking View Of Ringed Planet

September 13, 2011

By Michael Muracco

Cassini Spacecraft Captures Breathtaking View Of Ringed Planet

This is a photo of Saturn, not an artist’s futuristic sci-fi rendition. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which continues to orbit Saturn, captured this picture in 2006 as it floated in the planet’s shadow for about 12 hours. The sun illuminates the giant gas mass from behind, giving it a semi-transparent look. Perhaps most stunning is the view of the planet’s rings, which appear to glow in the light. According to NASA, the photo helped scientists discover rings they didn’t know existed: Related posts:Saturn Returns To The Evening SkyEnceladus rains water onto SaturnSaturn's Moon Enceladus's Dramatic InfluenceNASA's Cassini Spacecraft Captures Aurora's...

Enceladus rains water onto Saturn

July 26, 2011

By Michael Muracco

Water plumes shoot from Enceladus. Image credit: ESA

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Herschel space observatory has shown that water expelled from the moon Enceladus forms a giant torus of water vapor around Saturn. The discovery solves a 14-year mystery by identifying the source of the water in Saturn’s upper atmosphere. Herschel’s latest results mean that Enceladus is the only moon in the solar system known to influence the chemical composition of its parent planet. Enceladus expels around 70 gallons (250 kilograms) of water vapor every second through a collection of jets from the south polar region known as the tiger stripes because of their distinctive...

Saturn Returns To The Evening Sky

March 30, 2011

By Michael Muracco

Saturn reaches opposition – the time when it is exactly opposite the sun in the sky – on the night of April 3 and early morning of April 4. Saturn is now in the sky all night long, rising in the east as the sun sets, and then setting in the west when the sun rises. As the most distant of the naked-eye planets (Uranus technically can be seen with the naked eye, but it takes a sharp eye and knowledge of its exact location), Saturn gets the least sunlight and so reflects the least amount of light back...