The Cassini spacecraft has studied Saturn for more than a decade. Now it’s ready to undertake one last daring mission.
To The Edge Of Night
When we watch starlight pass through Saturn’s rings, it tells us an interesting story.
Titan As An Earth-like World
There are many parallels between Titan and Earth, and so we can see the moon as a kind of colder, smaller cousin to our own planet.
Kronoseismology And The Rings Of Saturn
While it’s a powerful tool, seismology methods pose a challenge for gas planets. But because Saturn has a complex ring system, its vibrations can be measured indirectly. The process is known as Kronoseismology.
Yin Yang Moon
Saturn’s moon Iapetus has a strange yin yang coloring, as well as a mysterious equatorial ridge.
Shadow of the Rings
We now know the planet with the greatest ring system isn’t Saturn.
Ancient Rings
Saturn is everyone’s favorite ringed planet. It’s ring system is both complex and extraordinarily bright. Just why it is so bright has been a bit of a mystery. It’s brightness is due to the fact that the rings are composed almost entirely of water ice, and the fact that there isn’t a great deal of dust in the rings. Because of this, it was once thought that Saturn’s rings were generally young. If the ring system were old, one would expect it to darken over time as dust and other debris from the solar system accumulate over time. This also agreed with the idea that such a complex ring system would likely be unstable over millions of years.
Home
The image above is a processed color image of Earth from Saturn. As Carl Sagan once wrote, “That’s here. That’s home. That’s us.” The view of Earth as a pale blue dot demonstrates the rarity of our world, and the fragility of our lives. It is easy to feel small and humbled by such a visage. But this image of our …
Dance Magic Dance
Janus is a small moon of Saturn. It is somewhat oval in shape and has a diameter of about 180 kilometers. Epimetheus is another moon of Saturn, with a diameter of about 120 kilometers. The two moons are very similar, even down to their orbits. They share the same orbital plane, and at the moment the orbit of Janus is only about 50 kilometers closer to Saturn than that of Epimetheus. In other words the gap between the orbits is less than the size of the moons.
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