The skies are giving us a rare and stunning sight this month, as a five-planet planetary parade will be visible in June of 2022. The parade of planets will include Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, all in that order. They’ll be visible throughout the sky from lower in the east to higher in the …
Titan looks suspiciously like our own planet when you observe it. However, Saturn’s moon and our own Earth couldn’t be any more different. Where landscapes are made of silicate-based sediments on Earth, many believe Titan’s landscapes are made of solid organic compounds. As such, they should be much more fragile than Earth’s. A new study …
Aside from Earth, Saturn is probably the most instantly recognizable of the planets in our solar system. It’s the only planet with bold, easily visible rings — other planets, such as Uranus, have rings as well, but they’re not nearly as opaque — and you’d never mistake it for another world in our little stellar …
Saturn’s bizarre moon Titan has carbon-based compounds in its atmosphere that may be a precursor to life. The surface of Titan is covered in lakes of hydrocarbons which are toxic to life as we know it, but there may be an ocean of liquid water deep beneath the surface. Future missions could probe that ocean …
A study of Enceladus images from the Cassini orbiter has revealed new clues as to the age of the ice on different parts of the moon. The moon’s south pole is covered in new ice, which is expected, but its northern hemisphere also has young ice, which was a surprise. Enceladus is one of the …
The Hubble Space Telescope recently snapped one of the most incredible photos of Saturn ever. The image was captured on July 4th and shows Saturn, its iconic rings, and two of Saturn’s many moons. Hubble is old by NASA standards, but it continues to produce incredible results regardless of its age. The Hubble Space Telescope …
Saturn’s moon Titan is drifting away from the planet at a faster rate than previously thought, according to data sent back by NASA’s Cassini orbiter. The moon, which is covered in lakes of liquid hydrocarbons, has a thick ice layer that may hide an ocean of liquid water. Earth’s own Moon also drifts away from …
Of all the places in our solar system where life might be hiding out, Saturn’s frosty moon Enceladus might be the most tantalizing. The Moon is a vast ocean covered by an icy shell, and NASA’s Cassini mission offered intriguing glimpses of huge liquid water geysers erupting into space through cracks in the thick ice. …
When NASA’s Cassini orbiter spent over a decade orbiting Saturn, the planet at the core of its mission wasn’t the only target of its observations. The probe also spent time spying on Saturn’s moons, including Titan. Now, with the Cassini mission just a distant memory, the data it sent back is still being mined for …
Earth’s singular moon has offered astronomers the opportunity to study the relationship between planets and the natural satellites that orbit them. In many ways, Earth’s moon is the perfect introduction to teach humanity some very basic things about how the universe works. There’s no civilization living on the ringed gas giant Saturn, of course, but …
