Saturn has a great many more moons than our planet – a whopping 62. A single moon, Titan, accounts for an overwhelming 96% of all the material orbit the planet, with a group of six other smaller moons dominating the Continue reading
The international Cassini mission has spotted what appears to be a miniature extraterrestrial version of the Nile River: a river valley on Saturn’s moon Titan that stretches more than 400 km from its ‘headwaters’ to a large sea. It is Continue reading
Data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft tie a shift in seasonal sunlight to a wholesale reversal, at unexpected altitudes, in the circulation of the atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan. At the south pole, the data show definitive evidence for sinking air Continue reading
This fantastic swirl of clouds at the Saturn’s north pole has been photographed by the Cassini spacecraft on November 27, 2012. The camera was pointing toward Saturn at approximately 224,618 miles (361,488 kilometers) away, and the image was taken using the Continue reading
You could call this “Pac-Man, the Sequel.” Scientists with NASA’s Cassini mission have spotted a second feature shaped like the 1980s video game icon in the Saturn system, this time on the moon Tethys. (The first was found on Mimas Continue reading
What has happened to Saturn’s moon Iapetus? Vast sections of this strange world are dark as coal, while others are as bright as ice. The composition of the dark material is unknown, but infrared spectra indicate that it possibly contains Continue reading
Why is this moon shaped like a smooth egg? The robotic Cassini spacecraft completed the first flyby ever of Saturn’s small moon Methone in May and discovered that the moon has no obvious craters. Craters, usually caused by impacts, have Continue reading
Saturn’s moon Titan turns out to be flatter than it should be. Two Cassini scientists have a new and unusual theory about what causes Titan to have the shape it has: weather. The moon hits your eye like a big Continue reading
A literal shot in the dark by imaging cameras on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has yielded an image of a visible glow from Titan, emanating not just from the top of Titan’s atmosphere, but also – surprisingly – from deep in Continue reading