saturn

This composite image shows the Saturn Lyman-alpha bulge, an emission from hydrogen which is a persistent and unexpected excess detected by three distinct NASA missions, namely Voyager 1, Cassini, and the Hubble Space Telescope between 1980 and 2017. A Hubble near-ultraviolet image, obtained in 2017 during the Saturn summer in the northern hemisphere, is used as a reference to sketch the Lyman-alpha emission of the planet. The rings appear much darker than the planet's body because they reflect much less ultraviolet sunlight. Above the rings and the dark equatorial region, the Lyman-alpha bulge appears as an extended (30 degree) latitudinal band that is 30 percent brighter than the surrounding regions. A small fraction of the southern hemisphere appears between the rings and the equatorial region, but it is dimmer than the northern hemisphere. North of the bulge region (upper-right portion of image), the disk brightness declines gradually versus latitude toward the bright aurora region that is here shown for reference (not at scale). A dark spot inside the aurora region represents the footprint of the spin axis of the planet. It's believed that icy rings particles raining on the atmosphere at specific latitudes and seasonal effects cause an atmospheric heating that makes the upper atmosphere hydrogen reflect more Lyman-alpha sunlight in the bulge region. This unexpected interaction between the rings and the upper atmosphere is now investigated in depth to define new diagnostic tools for estimating if distant exoplanets have extended Saturn-like ring systems. Credits: NASA, ESA, Lotfi Ben-Jaffel (IAP & LPL)

Saturn’s Rings Heating Its Atmosphere According to Hubble

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Saturn's Rings Heating Its Atmosphere According to Hubble and the secret has been hiding in plain view for 40 years. However, this phenomenon has never seen before in the solar system.

This stunning black and white false-color view of Saturn's moon Hyperion reveals crisp details across the strange, tumbling moon's surface. Differences in color could represent differences in the composition of surface materials. The view was obtained during Cassini's close flyby on Sept. 26, 2005. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Meet Saturn’s Spongy Moon Hyperion

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Meet Saturn's Spongy Moon Hyperion, discovered in 1848 by William Lassell. It is the largest of Saturn's irregular, nonspherical moons.

saturn and moons

Podcast Episode 4 | How Cassini made the Earth smile

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Podcast on the Cassini spacecraft & its 13 year orbit around Saturn. It sent back images and data that gave us information about Saturn, its rings & moons.

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VLOG Episode 2 | How Cassini made the Earth smile

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A VLOG about the Cassini Huygens Space Mission to Saturn, where it studied the planet, its rings and moons.

NASA sending probe to Titan Saturns moon

NASA sending Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s moon Titan

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27 June 2019 – NASA announced on Thursday afternoon that it would be sending a robotic rotorcraft dubbed Dragonfly to Titan that will collect samples and measure soil composition in search for s...

Huygens landing on Saturn’s moon Titan in 2005 as part of Cassini

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