Saturn – Spaceflight Now

Webb spots vast plume of water vapor spewing from Saturn’s moon Enceladus

June 2, 2023 Spaceflight Now

Using the sensitivity of the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have managed to detect a vast plume of water vapor spewing from the southern pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, a jet extending nearly 6,000 miles and feeding a previously detected torus circling the entire planet.

ESA’s Huygens probe landed on Saturn’s moon Titan 15 years ago

January 14, 2020 Stephen Clark

Fifteen years after accomplishing the first-ever landing on Saturn’s moon Titan, lessons learned from the European Space Agency’s Huygens spacecraft continue aiding designers of future planetary probes, according to new results from a study looking at why the landing craft spun the wrong way as it descended through Titan’s thick, hazy atmosphere.

NASA approves development of flying drone to explore Saturn’s moon Titan

June 27, 2019 Stephen Clark

NASA officials announced Thursday that the agency will move forward with the development of a plutonium-powered robotic quadcopter drone to explore Saturn’s moon Titan, a hazy world covered with dunes and methane lakes that scientists say is reminiscent of the ancient Earth.

Saturn’s clouds run deep, rings may rain organics

April 6, 2018 Stephen Clark

Saturn’s clouds have roots deeper inside the planet’s atmosphere than scientists previously thought, and Saturn’s rings — now believed to have formed in the last 200 million years — appear to be raining organic molecules down on the planet, according to observations made by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft last year in the final weeks of its mission.

Saturn’s night side caught in “ringshine”

February 19, 2018 Stephen Clark

In the final hours of its pioneering mission, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft opened its cameras to gaze down on Saturn, recording views of a nighttime cloudscape illuminated by sunlight reflected off countless tiny ice particles in the planet’s rings.

Titan drone, comet sampler picked as finalists for NASA mission

December 20, 2017 Stephen Clark

NASA has narrowed its choices for a new billion-dollar robotic space mission: A plutonium-powered quadcopter to explore the hazy landscape of Saturn’s largest moon Titan, or a probe to scoop up a piece of a comet and return it to Earth.

Cassini’s farewell to Saturn

November 26, 2017 Stephen Clark

Two days before its final plunge into Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft turned its camera toward the ringed world to take a series of images for a color mosaic, capturing a last evocative close-up until a new mission reaches the planet.

Cassini results still keeping scientists busy

October 19, 2017 Stephen Clark

Scientists examining data from the Cassini mission’s final months reported this week unexpected measurements of Saturn’s gravity field and outer atmosphere, suggesting they may have to revisit theories about the planet’s rings and the forces that generate magnetic fields.

Cassini crashes into Saturn, ending 20-year mission

September 15, 2017 William Harwood

Dutifully beaming back data to the very end, NASA’s long-lived Cassini probe slammed into Saturn’s atmosphere at some 77,000 mph Friday, blazing like a shooting star as it was ripped apart and incinerated in the final chapter of an enormously successful mission.

Cassini races toward fiery mission-ending plunge into Saturn

September 14, 2017 William Harwood

Thirteen years after reaching Saturn, NASA’s nuclear-powered Cassini spacecraft raced through its 294th and final orbit Thursday, collecting priceless data while hurtling toward a kamikaze-like plunge into the ringed planet’s atmosphere Friday, going out in a blaze of glory to wrap up an “insanely” successful mission.