Saturn – Page 3 – Spaceflight Now

Cassini glimpses saucer-shaped moon plowing through Saturn’s rings

March 11, 2017

Saturn’s moon Pan, embedded in a gap in Saturn’s icy rings, has drawn comparisons to a walnut or ravioli in new images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.

Q&A with Earl Maize, Cassini project manager (members only)

March 9, 2017

Earl Maize, who leads the Cassini mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, started working on the Saturn orbiter project in 1992. In September, the spacecraft will take an intentional plunge into Saturn’s atmosphere, gaining unprecedented up-close measurements and ending a 13-year odyssey round the ringed planet.

Cassini offers best-ever view of Saturn’s rings

January 30, 2017

A sequence of images captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft last month are the most detailed pictures ever taken of Saturn’s famous rings, revealing complex, unexplained bands and the movements of dozens of tiny icy moonlets spinning around the planet.

Saturn’s shepherd moon Daphnis makes waves

January 19, 2017

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has captured the first close-up view of Daphnis, one of at least 62 moons found orbiting Saturn, plowing a path through the planet’s icy rings and raising waves in its wake.

Study suggests Saturn’s moon Dione has underground ocean

October 11, 2016

Scientists crunching data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft believe Saturn’s moon Dione has a liquid ocean buried 60 miles under a thick icy shell, potentially adding to a growing list of ocean worlds in the frigid outer solar system.

Saturn’s moons align for cosmic photo opportunity

December 15, 2015

NASA has released an image of Saturn’s moons Enceladus and Tethys caught in a rare alignment by the Cassini spacecraft, which is heading for its final close encounter with the icy moon Enceladus Saturday.

Cassini images just a taste of Enceladus flyby science return

October 31, 2015

Days after a fleeting plunge through the icy plumes of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is broadcasting tantalizing data back to Earth for scientists eager to address the moon’s prospects for life.

Cassini survives daring flight through plumes of Enceladus

October 28, 2015

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft radioed home Wednesday after a high-speed dash through the wispy fountains of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, sampling particles that hold telltale hints whether alien life could survive somewhere in the depths of a vast global ocean hidden beneath a crust of rumpled ice.

Q&A with Jonathan Lunine on Enceladus’ prospects for life

October 27, 2015

On the eve of the Cassini spacecraft’s deepest pass through the polar plumes of Enceladus, Spaceflight Now’s Stephen Clark spoke with Jonathan Lunine, a member of the mission’s science team from Cornell University, about what he hopes to learn from the encounter.

Cassini transmits home first views of Enceladus’ north pole

October 19, 2015

Rushing past Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus at dizzying speed, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft took its first pictures of the captivating object’s sunlit north pole last week, revealing cracks in the moon’s frozen crust and crater fields extending dozens of miles across.