Cassini

11.22.09

Happy Halloween From NASA

By John Mahoney Posted 10.31.2009 at 11:00 am 2 Comments

"The Cassini team sends 'bats wishes' for a happy, healthy and fun Halloween." Oh, scientist humor.

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Mysterious Object Rips Through One of Saturn's Rings

Saturn's approaching equinox reveals a possible ring collision with a small object

By Jeremy Hsu Posted 08.10.2009 at 10:55 am 4 Comments

Saturn Gets Served: A mysterious object passing through Saturn's "Ring F" NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

An unknown object appears to have punched through one of Saturn's rings and left a calling card in the form of trailing debris. NASA's Cassini spacecraft snapped the image on June 11, 2009 during its ongoing tour of Saturn and its moons.

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Possible Ocean Beneath Titan's Crust

Another fascinating find from the Cassini probe has scientists buzzing about one of Saturn's moons

By Gregory Mone Posted 03.25.2008 at 9:57 am 4 Comments

The Cassini probe has found evidence that there may be an underground ocean on Saturn's moon Titan. The moon is already an area of tremendous interest to planetary scientists, given its dunes, lakes and mountains. It also has one of the most Earth-like surfaces in the solar system. Now, by using radar measurements to detect changes in the moon's rotation, scientists have gotten more insight into what's below the surface.

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READ MORE ABOUT > Cassini, Gregory Mone, nasa, planetary science, Saturn, space, titan

Touch Down on Titan

Descent Through Clouds to Surface

By Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona Posted 05.24.2005 at 3:00 pm 0 Comments

This short animation is made up from a sequence of images taken by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) instrument on board ESA's Huygens probe, during its successful descent to Titan on Jan. 14, 2005.

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Ringed Victory

Scientists are triumphant over extraordinary new images from Saturn and its moons—rivers of methane, ice volcanoes, ferocious storms and more

By Michael Moyer Posted 04.29.2005 at 12:00 pm 0 Comments

The penetrometer was the first thing to hit. The stick-like probe on the bottom of the Huygens lander punched aside a hard pebble made of water ice on the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, and sliced down through five inches of soft, muddy material. Scientists watching from Earth were ecstatic—the probe was not expected to survive the landing—but at the same time puzzled: If Titan really was, as they suspected, much like a young Earth, where were the liquid oceans predicted to cover the surface?

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