Saturn News

May 10, 2020

Top Headlines

Saturn illustration (stock image). | Credit: (c) revers_jr / stock.adobe.com

What Makes Saturn's Atmosphere So Hot

Apr. 6, 2020 New analysis of data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft found that electric currents, triggered by interactions between solar winds and charged particles from Saturn's moons, ... read more

Explaining the 'Tiger Stripes' of Saturn's Moon Enceladus

Dec. 9, 2019 Slashed across the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus are four straight, parallel fissures or 'tiger stripes' from which water erupts. These fissures aren't quite like anything else in the Solar ... read more

Origin and Chemical Makeup of Saturn's Moon Titan's Dunes

Oct. 18, 2019 Astronomers exposed acetylene ice -- a chemical that is used on Earth in welding torches and exists at Titan's equatorial regions -- at low temperatures to proxies of high-energy galactic cosmic ... read more

Saturn Surpasses Jupiter After the Discovery of 20 New Moons

Oct. 7, 2019 Move over Jupiter; Saturn is the new moon king. A team has found 20 new moons orbiting Saturn. This brings the ringed planet's total number of moons to 82, surpassing Jupiter, which has ... read more

Latest Headlines

updated 12:20am EDT

Safety Zone Saves Giant Moons from Fatal Plunge

Mar. 9, 2020 Numerical simulations showed that the temperature gradient in the disk of gas around a young gas giant planet could play a critical role in the development of a satellite system dominated by a single ... read more

What If Mysterious 'Cotton Candy' Planets Actually Sport Rings?

Mar. 2, 2020 Some of the extremely low-density, 'cotton candy like' exoplanets called super-puffs may actually have rings, according to new ... read more

Life on Titan Cannot Rely on Cell Membranes, According to Computational Simulations

Mar. 2, 2020 Researchers have made a new contribution to the ongoing search into the possibility of life on Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Using quantum mechanical ... read more

Galactic Cosmic Rays Affect Titan's Atmosphere

Feb. 14, 2020 Planetary scientists have revealed the secrets of the atmosphere of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. The team found a chemical footprint in Titan's atmosphere indicating that cosmic rays coming ... read more

Saturn's Largest Moon, Titan, May Offer Insights for Earth

Dec. 3, 2019 Scientists studying the weather and climate of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, have reported a significant seasonal variation in its energy budget, a finding which could yield new insights into climate ... read more

Saturn's Icy Rings Are as Old as the Solar System Itself, Study Suggests

Sep. 18, 2019 No one knows for certain when Saturn's iconic rings formed, but a new study suggests that they are much older than some scientists ... read more

Saturn's Rings Shine in Hubble's Latest Portrait

Sep. 12, 2019 Saturn is so beautiful that astronomers cannot resist using the Hubble Space Telescope to take yearly snapshots of the ringed world when it is at its closest distance to Earth. These images, however, ... read more

Lakes on Saturn's Moon Titan Are Explosion Craters, New Models Suggest

Sep. 10, 2019 Data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft may help explain why some methane-filled lakes on Saturn's moon Titan are surrounded by steep rims that reach hundreds of feet high. The models suggests that ... read more

'Titans in a Jar' Could Answer Key Questions Ahead of NASA's Space Exploration

July 3, 2019 Researchers from Southern Methodist University (SMU) could help determine if Saturn's icy moon -- Titan -- has ever been home to life long before ... read more

'Bathtub Rings' Around Titan's Lakes Might Be Made of Alien Crystals

June 24, 2019 The frigid lakeshores of Saturn's moon Titan might be encrusted with strange, unearthly minerals, according to new ... read more

Earlier Headlines

Astronomers See 'Warm' Glow of Uranus's Rings

June 20, 2019 Two telescopes have measured the faint heat from the main, or epsilon ring, of Uranus, enabling astronomers for the first time to determine its temperature: a cool 77 Kelvin. Earlier images of the ... read more

NASA's Cassini Reveals New Sculpting in Saturn Rings

June 17, 2019 As NASA's Cassini dove close to Saturn in its final year, the spacecraft provided intricate detail on the workings of Saturn's complex rings, new analysis ... read more

Saturn's Moon Mimas: A 'Snowplough' in the Planet's Rings

June 11, 2019 Researchers have shown that Mimas, one of Saturn's moons, acted as a kind of remote snowplough, pushing apart the ice particles that make up the ... read more

Exomoons May Be Home to Extra-Terrestrial Life

June 4, 2019 New research looks at the possibility of moons outside our solar system causing gaps in the rings of planet ... read more

Giant Planets and Big Data: What Deep Learning Reveals About Saturn's Storms

Apr. 29, 2019 A deep learning approach to detecting storms on Saturn shows the vast regions affected by storms and that dark storm clouds contain material swept up from the lower ... read more

Ice Feature on Saturn's Giant Moon, TItan

Apr. 29, 2019 Research team finds huge ice feature on Titan while trying to understand where Saturn's largest moon gets all of its methane. This research, which used Principal Components Analysis in an ... read more

NASA's Cassini Reveals Surprises With Titan's Lakes

Apr. 16, 2019 On its final flyby of Saturn's largest moon in 2017, NASA's Cassini spacecraft gathered radar data revealing that the small liquid lakes in Titan's northern hemisphere are surprisingly ... read more

Saturn's Rings Coat Tiny Moons

Mar. 28, 2019 New findings have emerged about five tiny moons nestled in and near Saturn's rings. The closest-ever flybys by NASA's Cassini spacecraft reveal that the surfaces of these unusual moons are ... read more

New Surprises from Jupiter and Saturn

Mar. 6, 2019 The latest data from the giant planets has sent researchers back to the drawing board. Cassini orbited Saturn for 13 years before its dramatic final dive into the planet's interior, while Juno ... read more

Shedding Light on Saturn's Moon Titan's Mysterious Atmosphere

Jan. 23, 2019 A new study tackles one of the greatest mysteries about Titan, one of Saturn's moons: the origin of its thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere. The study posits that one key to Titan's mysterious ... read more

Waves in Saturn's Rings Give Precise Measurement of Planet's Rotation Rate

Jan. 18, 2019 Saturn's distinctive rings were observed in unprecedented detail by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, and scientists have now used those observations to probe the interior of the giant planet and ... read more

Saturn Hasn't Always Had Rings

Jan. 17, 2019 In its last days, the Cassini spacecraft looped between Saturn and its rings so that Earth-based radio telescopes could track the gravitational tug of each. Scientists have now used these ... read more

Evidence of Changing Seasons, Rain on Saturn's Moon Titan's North Pole

Jan. 16, 2019 An image from the international Cassini spacecraft provides evidence of rainfall on the north pole of Titan, the largest of Saturn's moons. The rainfall would be the first indication of the ... read more

Saturn Is Losing Its Rings at 'Worst-Case-Scenario' Rate

Dec. 17, 2018 New NASA research confirms that Saturn is losing its iconic rings at the maximum rate estimated from Voyager 1 and 2 observations made decades ago. The rings are being pulled into Saturn by gravity ... read more

A New Way to Create Saturn's Radiation Belts

Nov. 29, 2018 Scientists have discovered a new method to explain how radiation belts are formed around the planet ... read more

Odd Bodies, Rapid Spins Keep Cosmic Rings Close

Nov. 19, 2018 Forget those shepherding moons. Gravity and the odd shapes of asteroid Chariklo and dwarf planet Haumea -- small objects deep in our solar system -- can be credited for forming and maintaining their ... read more

Surprising Chemical Complexity of Saturn's Rings Changing Planet's Upper Atmosphere

Oct. 4, 2018 A new study based on data from the final orbits last year of NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows the rings of Saturn -- some of the most visually stupendous objects in the universe -- are far more ... read more

Saturn's Famous Hexagon May Tower Above the Clouds

Sep. 5, 2018 The long-lived international Cassini mission has revealed a surprising feature emerging at Saturn's northern pole as it nears summertime: a warming, high-altitude vortex with a hexagonal shape, ... read more

New Family Photos of Mars and Saturn from Hubble

July 26, 2018 In summer 2018 the planets Mars and Saturn are, one after the other, in opposition to Earth. During this event the planets are relatively close to Earth, allowing astronomers to observe them in ... read more

Scientists Find Evidence of Complex Organic Molecules from Enceladus

June 27, 2018 Using mass spectrometry data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, scientists found that large, carbon-rich organic molecules are ejected from cracks in the icy surface of Saturn's moon ... read more

Thursday, June 20, 2019