Enceladus Rains Water on Saturn

New observations from the ESA's Herschel space telescope have revealed that Saturn's moon Enceladus expels water from a collection of jets at its southern polar region, forming a giant torus of water vapor surrounding Saturn and becoming the only moon known to influence the chemical composition of its planet.

Giant Saturn Storm Revealed

From infrared observations of the NASA's Cassini probe and the Very Large Telescope array in Chile, a massive subsurface storm has been discovered raging across the entire width of Saturn, reaching some 370 miles into the planet's stratosphere.

Saturn's Geyser Moon

Ultraviolet images taken by the Cassini spacecraft show a glowing patch near Saturn's north pole believed to be the result of charged particles striking the surface after escaping from Enceladus' geysers and being channeled to the planet along its magnetic field lines.

Ripples in Planets' Rings

Using data from Cassini, Galileo and the New Horizons missions, astronomers have detected ripples in the ring systems of Saturn and Jupiter that can be traced back to collisions with cometary fragments dating back at least 30 years.

Spring Rains on Titan

Images from the Cassini space probe show seasonal showers of liquid methane in the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon Titan, further evidence the moon has a "methane cycle" similar to Earth's environmental water cycle.

Enceladus Generating Power

New data from the Cassini spacecraft show that the internal heat-generated power of Saturn's moon Enceladus as detected through linear fissures at its southern polar region is more than an order of magnitude greater than expected, with the mechanism of this power output unknown.

Saturn's Strange Propellers

Data from the Cassini probe orbiting Saturn have revealed strange propeller-shaped wakes thousands of kilometers long that exist within the planet's rings, the result of small unseen moons ploughing through the rings and providing new insight into planet formation theories.

"Walnut" Moon Mystery

New planetary models have shed light on the origin of the unusual "walnut" ridge formation of Saturn's moon Iapetus, with the moon in a region far enough from the planet to retain much of its initial rotational spin while still forming and producing the characteristic bulge along its equator.

Saturn's Chaotic Rings

New data from NASA's Cassini probe have revealed the surprisingly chaotic, violent environment of Saturn's rings, including evidence that they rapidly rearrange themselves and warp out of shape, that they include dozens of moonlets colliding with each other, and that the rings are surrounded by a thin oxygen atmosphere.

Titan's Slushy, Solid Core

Extremely precise measurements by the Cassini spacecraft have shown that Saturn's moon Titan has a slushy underground ocean beneath a brittle crust of ice and on top of a solid core of rock and ice, unlike the expected molten core and mantle of most terrestrial objects.

Fog Discovered on Titan

The discovery of fog (mostly methane and ethane) on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, reveals that moon may be the only other body in our solar system to have significant quantities of liquid on its surface, thus the only known active hydrological cycle outside of Earth.

Saturn's Mysterious Hexagon

The latest images of Saturn sent back by the orbiting probe Cassini show the most detailed photos of a long-lived mysterious hexagon pattern in the jet stream surrounding Saturn's north pole, the origin of which remains unexplained.

Two-Tone Surface of Iapetus

Data from the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn has solved a centuries-old mystery of why the moon Iapetus has a two-toned surface: It is created by dust settling on the leading side of Iapetus from another of Saturn's moon.

Color on Saturn's Moons

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has returned images showing unexplained patches of color on Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione and Rhea, Saturn's five innermost icy moons.

Large Ring Around Saturn

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered a large, faint ring of ice and dust surrounding Saturn millions of miles out from the planet and is believed to be the early stages of another ring formation.

Saturn's Rings Disappear

Saturn's rings will "disappear" from view on August 11th as the rings align edge-on with the viewing plane as part of a 15-year cycle, reflecting only a minimum of sunlight.

Evidence of Water on Saturn Moon

Water plumes observed erupting from the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus may suggest the existence of a subsurface ocean.

New Moon Discovered Hidden in Saturn's Ring

Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have discovered a previously unknown moon hidden in the outer ring of Saturn.

Only a third of a mile wide, the new moonlet was spotted by the Cassini spacecraft currently orbiting Saturn. The moon was found buried within the outer G ring, and the moon is believed to have played a major part in that ring's formation. The size of the moon is too small to be resolved directly by Cassini's cameras, but its size was estimated by comparing its brightness to other moons of Saturn. Prior to this discovery, the G ring was the only ring of Saturn not associated with a moon.

The newly discovered moon may not be alone within the G ring, as previous measurements by Cassini hint at the existence of many bodies less than several hundred feet in diameter. Collisions among these moonlets is believed to create the smaller dust and ice particles that make up the ring arc.

This discovery was announced on March 3rd by the International Astronomical Union.

Source: ScienceDaily