Cassini

In this week's edition of "Into the great unknown," the spacecraft built to study Saturn and its surroundings in one of our most ambitious space missions to date.

Scientists have discovered a couple of new organic compounds within the icy plumes erupting from Enceladus, shedding more light on the moon's microbe-harboring potential.

A new study suggests that some of the smaller methane lakes on Titan may have been formed by explosions of warming nitrogen.

Analysis of Saturn’s interior describes jet streams that continue deep below the surface and thick liquid that “flows like honey”.

Based on radar data returned by NASA's Cassini orbiter in 2017 during its final flyby, researchers have determined that the small methane lakes set on hills in the northern hemisphere of Titan are over 100 m deep, providing new clues as to how Titan's methane-based hydrologic cycle works.

Two years ago the Cassini probe flew past for a closer look at a few of Saturn's inner moons. Now a NASA team has analyzed the data and uncovered some intriguing new details about these tiny worlds, including how they’re busily scooping up material from Saturn’s rings and growing into weird shapes.

Reset your interplanetary watches because data from NASA's Cassini probe has finally answered the question of how long a day on Saturn is. Using the planet's giant rings as a natural seismograph, a team of scientist calculated that Saturn rotates once every 10 hours, 33 minutes and 38 seconds.

Saturn's rings may not only vanish in 100 million years, but they may have only been around for as little as 10 million years. Using data gathered in the last days of NASA's Cassini mission, a team has concluded that the rings may have been created sometime between 10 and 100 million years ago.

Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is a surprisingly dynamic world. Summer was due to hit its northern hemisphere in 2016, but strangely it didn’t seem to arrive as expected. Now, astronomers have analyzed Cassini images and found evidence of rainfall, indicating that finally, summer is coming.

A new NASA study has revealed Saturn rings are shedding their material much faster than we realized, so much so its existence could one day come to resemble a tiny blip in the timeline of its entire life. ​​

The Cassini mission continues to pay dividends long after its demise as data gathered during its flybys of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, between 2004 and 2017 indicate that the satellite has dust storms made of complex organic molecules.

NASA's Cassini probe burned up in Saturn's atmosphere about a year ago, but a newly-released image shows that its last days were anything but idle. Four days before its fiery end, Cassini's a mosaic view of the Saturnian largest moon Titan's north polar lakes filled with liquid methane and ethane.