The solar system just keeps getting wetter and wetter. According to a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters, Enceladus is not the only Saturnian moon harboring a global ocean beneath its frozen surface. Based on new modeling, Dione, the fourth largest moon in the system, can now be called a water world as well. […]
More fascinating observations of Titan’s seas from the Cassini spacecraft operating at Saturn. From NASA.gov: These images from the Radar instrument aboard NASA’s Cassini spacecraft show the evolution of a transient feature in the large hydrocarbon sea named Ligeia Mare on Saturn’s moon Titan. Analysis by Cassini scientists indicates that the bright features, informally known as […]
NASA released this photo of three of Saturn’s moons yesterday. The image, which was taken by the Cassini spacecraft in December shows Tethys, Enceladus and Mimas cast against the absurdly photogenic backdrop of Saturn’s rings. The original caption was “Three Times the Fun,” but perhaps it could also hae been called “Three Times the […]
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is about to make a return visit to one of the most interesting environments we have yet discovered in the Saturn system, and that is saying something. On Wednesday, October 28th, Cassini will make a low flyby over the South Pole of Enceladus, the 300 mile diameter moon which appears to contain […]
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute 2015 is shaping up as a banner year for imaging icy worlds. The ion powered Dawn probe arrived at the Dwarf planet Ceres in the Main Asteroid Belt on March 6th, and is currently on that world’s shadowed side, still firing its engines as it seeks a circular science orbit […]
The Sun Shines on Titan’s Seas : Image NASA/JPL-CalTech/Univ. Arizona/Univ. Idaho The movie Interstellar took the crew of the Endurance to an ocean world with giant, wormhole driven waves, and then a frozen wasteland of a planet which left many audience members looking for a marauding Wampa snow beast. The point of departure for all […]
A Shocking Encounter at Hyperion: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute This week brought two new findings from the Cassini spacecraft in the Saturn system. The first involved data from a September 26, 2005 flyby of Saturn’s bizarrely shaped moon Hyperion. According to new analysis, during the approach, Cassini was struck by a beam of electrons coming from […]
Artists Concept: Image CredIt JPL One recurring theme in coverage from Innerspace.net is a lamentation over the lack of any flagship class outer planet mission to follow in the wake of the spectacularly successful Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn. While Innerspace is predominately focused on human exploration and settlement, and in particular the contributions being made […]
Three images show an unusual feature in Titan’s sea. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/Cornell Note: Yet another in a long series of intriguing findings from the Cassini spacecraft operating in the Saturn system, and another reason to bemoan the lack of any planned follow up to this groundbreaking spacecraft. From JPL News: “NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is monitoring the […]
Although Innerspace.net tends to focus on Mars as the most inhabitable planet outside Earth, Saturn’s system holds a unique fascination, much of it due to the amazing Cassini space probe. It is also the case because even though it is much further out than Jupiter and its many moons, Saturn’s system does not present the […]
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