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19 May 2010
Incredible Images of Enceladus From Cassini's Latest Flyby
Wow. Cassini the artist has struck again, this time with amazing images from the close flyby of Enceladus that we wrote a preview about earlier this week. Cassini flew by Enceladus during the early hours of May 18 UTC, coming within about 435 kilometers (270 miles) of the moon's surface. The raw images [...]
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17 May 2010
Cassini's Cruise: Close Flybys of Two Moons in Less Than Two Days
It's a space navigator dream! The Cassini spacecraft will perform close flybys of two of Saturn's most enigmatic moons all within less than 48 hours, and with no maneuvers in between. Enceladus and Titan are aligned just right so that Cassini can catch glimpses of these two contrasting moons – one a geyser [...]
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10 May 2010
Incredible! Cassini as Houdini Cuts Titan in Half
There's nothing up the Cassini imaging team's sleeves in this image; it is real! Is the moon Titan being cut in half by Saturn's rings? What's happening here is that the middle part of the rings are made dark as Saturn casts its shadow across them. Cassini was just in the right [...]
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15 April 2010
Enceladus is Blowing Bubbles
Observations from two instruments on the Cassini spacecraft shows the moon Enceladus leaves a complex pattern of ripples and bubbles in its wake as it orbit Saturn. The ringed planet's magnetosphere is filled with electrically charged particles (plasma) originating from both the planet and its moons, and as Enceladus plows through the plasma "spiky" [...]
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26 February 2010
More Jaw-Droppers from Cassini
The Cassini mission keeps churning out the hits, and here's a collection of some of the latest stunning images released by the CICLOPS (Cassini Imaging for Central Operations) team. Above, the small moon Janus is almost hidden between the planet's rings and the larger moon Rhea. The northern part of Janus can be [...]
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23 February 2010
Cassini Finds "Heat" and More Geysers on Enceladus
Newly released images from last November's close flyby over Saturn's icy moon Enceladus the Cassini spacecraft reveal geyser jets spraying all along the prominent fractures, or "tiger stripes" that cross the moon's south polar region. Additionally, a new detailed temperature map of one fracture reveals warmer temperatures than what was expected. "Enceladus continues [...]
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18 January 2010
Are We Just 'Lucky' to See Activity on Enceladus?
Caption: Geysers on Enceladus. Credit: NASA, JPL, Space Science Institute One of the most exciting but unexpected discoveries of the Cassini mission is seeing the activity taking place on Saturn's small moon Enceladus. Between the active geysers, the unusual "tiger stripes" and the surprisingly young surface near the moon's south pole, Enceladus has surprised [...]
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16 December 2009
Could there be Life on Jupiter and Saturn's Moons?
The ongoing search for the existence of life that doesn't call the Earth 'home' could potentially find that life right here in our own Solar System. There is considerable debate about whether evidence for that life has already been found on Mars, but astronomers might do well to look at other, more exotic locations in [...]
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21 November 2009
De Plume! De Plume! Enceladus Raw Flyby Images
Raw images are already being returned from Cassini's Nov. 21 "E-8" or eighth flyby of the tiger-striped moon Enceladus. Visible in this raw image are several plumes from fissures in the south polar region of the moon. These fissures spew jets of water vapor and other particles hundreds of kilometers from the surface. [...]
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02 November 2009
Fabulous! Enceladus Raw Flyby Images
Carolyn Porco, the lead for Cassini's imaging team, warned on Twitter that the flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus performed by the spacecraft on Nov. 2 wasn't really an "imaging" flyby, and that we might have to wait until the Nov. 21 flyby for really good images. But just take a look the images returned so [...]
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22 July 2009
Mystery Solved? New Clues Point to a Liquid Ocean on Enceladus.
A liquid plume is spewing from Saturn's icy moon Enceladus — but is it coming from heated ice on the surface, or a liquid ocean underneath? Analysis of the plume's chemistry, detailed in the Cassini (CICLOPS) image above and reported in Nature this week, may put the debate to rest. (...)Read the rest of Mystery Solved? New [...]
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24 June 2009
Does Enceladus Harbor a Liquid Ocean? Reasonable Minds Disagree
Two papers in the journal Nature this week come down on opposite sides of the question about whether Saturn's moon Enceladus contains a salty, liquid ocean. One research team, from Europe, says an enormous plume of water spurting in giant jets from the moon's south pole is fed by a salty ocean. The other group, led [...]
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02 June 2009
Book Your Tours of Titan and Enceladus Today!
Looking to go somewhere far-flung and exotic? Now is the time to book your excursion, and the Cassini spacecraft has several flyby tours of the moons Titan and Enceladus scheduled for the next few months. Major tour operators say the cost of long-haul flights and summer holidays prices are at an all time [...]
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29 April 2009
Salt in Enceladus’ Geysers Hints at Subsurface Liquid Ocean
Planetary scientists say the geysers shooting from Saturn’s moon Enceladus are likely to come from a subsurface sea of liquid water. During the Cassini spacecraft’s fly-through of the geyser’s plume on October 9, 2008, the instruments on board were able to measure the molecular weight of the chemicals in the ice. Detected were [...]
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