Saturn

Not quite the Moon on a stick, but not far off. This is Tethys, one of Saturn’s icy moons, from a perspective that makes it look like it’s stuck to the A and F rings of the planet. [NASA]

Titan Has a Huge Toxic Cloud Swirling Over Its South Pole

If you’re thinking of heading off on a spacecation, can we recommend that you don’t visit Titan’s south pole. Because not only is it cold and stormy—but new research also reveals that it’s toxic, too. The international Cassini mission has discovered a huge swirl of cloud above the south pole of Saturn’s largest moon. The…

Titan’s Enigmatic “Magic Island” Continues To Baffle Scientists

Remember that bizarre “magic island” on Titan’s northern seas? The one that suddenly emerged and then inexplicably disappeared? Well, it’s baaa-aaack — and it’s changed. So this thing — whatever it is — is clearly evolving. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has been monitoring the progress of the mysterious feature, which resides in a large hydrocarbon sea…

Behold the awesome nebulae flybys in this new In Saturn’s Rings teaser

Our friends of In Saturn’s Rings have a new teaser for their incoming 4K IMAX grand tour of the Universe, made using millions of high definition photographs taken by telescopes and spacecraft. There are no 3D models in these videos. Just photos, animated by 67 volunteers from all over the world. According to Val Klavans,…

The Seven Wonders of the Solar System

People like to make lists of things, especially lists of superlatives: the best, fastest, oldest, largest, heaviest and so on. There are lists of the ten fastest animals and the ten longest rivers and even of the ten highest-paid rock stars. The Guinness company created a small industry from publishing lists exactly like these, and…

Cool history of evolution turns lifeforms into robots

This ad for the German technology store Saturn makes as much sense as a Transformers movie: Zero. But I like how it tells the evolution of life on Earth making a parallel with the evolution of human technology. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

A Multi-Year Sunny Spell on Titan Ends With Methane Clouds

During a flyby in July, Cassini recorded clouds drifting across the largest moon of Saturn, Titan. This may be the kickoff of summer storms on the massive moon, the first time researchers have observed cloud formation since 2010. A time-lapse of clouds slipping around Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute…

You get three-for-one in this striking image of Saturn: its north polar vortex and hexagon along with its expansive rings. It was captured by Cassini’s wide-angle camera earlier this year. [NASA]

The 50 Most Amazing Images From a Decade of Orbiting Saturn

Cassini entered Saturn’s orbit on July 1st, 2004. And ever since, this NASA-ESA-ASI collaboration has delivered stunning images of the crown jewel of our solar system. The following 50 images were chosen from thousands of similarly great photographs from a full decade of exploring the sixth planet and its iconic ring system and moons. Read…

A Mysterious “Magic Island” Has Appeared On Titan

Saturn’s largest moon has truly strange geography. Astronomers working on the Cassini mission recently observed the sudden appearance of a bright, mysterious object in one of Titan’s northern seas — only to watch it disappear again. Uncertain as to what it is, the researchers offered four explanations. Last year during a routine flyby, the Cassini…

NASA Has Figured Out What Titan Smells Like

Good news, everyone! A recent lab experiment by NASA scientists has revealed the precise aromatic quality of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. And like a fine wine, it has a “strong aromatic character.” Unfortunately, NASA doesn’t have a Futurama-like smell-o-scope at its disposal. Instead, its scientists were able to “reverse engineer” the recipe that makes up…

Prometheus Teases the F-Ring of Saturn

Prometheus and Pandora are a tag-team of moons shaping Saturn’s F-ring. As Prometheus passes through the ring, it gouges a gore in the ring, drawing the material out as a streamer as the moon exits the ring. https://gizmodo.com/glittering-trails-of-giant-snowballs-seen-in-weirdest-r-5905062 Saturn’s sunlit rings as observed by the Cassini spacecraft in visible light on February 11th, 2014. Scale…

NASA’s smell-o-scope experiment sniffs Saturn’s moon Titan

Good news, everyone! NASA has came up with an interplanetary smell-o-scope experiment, processing data from the Cassini spacecraft and reproducing the smell of another world right here on Earth: Saturn’s moon Titan. (Spoiler: It stinks.) A team led by Joshua Sebree—assistant professor at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls and former postdoctoral fellow…

Creating the Rings of Saturn

How long would it take for Saturn to form its rings? Phil Plait of the Bad Astronomer blog goes on a research-binge with a bit of casual mathematics to figure out it would take a surprisingly short time for a diffuse ring, especially considering the usual mind-boggling timescales in astronomy. Image: Saturn’s rings as seen…

What Is This Giant, Swirling Hexagon At Saturn’s North Pole?

Something is going on at Saturn’s North Pole — something big, swirling, and shaped like a giant hexagon. So just what is it? Carolyn Porco, the leader of Cassini’s Imaging Team, explains it to us. Top Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Hampton University Porco joined us today to take our questions about life on other planets, the ocean on…

Are the Spokes in Saturn’s Rings Merely an Optical Illusion?

Among all the strange things about Saturn’s rings one of the strangest are the mysterious radial “spokes” in its B Ring. At first thought to be caused by the same sort of gravitational interactions between Saturn, its moons and the ring material that create the myriad divisions in the rings, information gathered by the Cassini…

Here’s the Story Behind Those Lights at Saturn’s North Pole

Stunning ultraviolet images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope show bursts of light zipping around Saturn. These are aurorae, created as the planet’s magnetic field is battered by charged particles from the sun. Scientists studying the auroras say this latest data finally reveals the unseen dynamics in the choreography of the dancing lights. University of…

Hubble Sees High-Speed Dancing Aurora on Saturn

This GIF shows a fast-paced light show on the north pole of Saturn, as captured by the European Space Agency’s Hubble Space Telescope in April and May of 2013. The images was just now released by the ESA. http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/05/Hubble_sees_aurora_on_Saturn I put together this animation using six new ultraviolet images, taken by Hubble’s super-sensitive Advanced Camera…

The Last Thing We’d See If Saturn Got Close Enough To Destroy The Earth

Over the weekend, Saturn got as close to the Earth as it will get this year—but it’s still 1.3 billion kilometers away. But what if Saturn somehow left its orbit and paid us a very close visit? It would look pretty stunning before it destroyed our home planet. Animator yeti dynamics, also known as Nick,…

A beautiful view of Saturn’s rings

NASA has released this beautiful image of the Saturn rings, looking straight down—the outer portion of the C ring and the inner portion of the B ring. According to NASA, “the general pattern is from “dirty” particles indicated by red to cleaner ice particles shown in turquoise in the outer parts of the rings.” This…