The latest JPL Von Karman Lecture series talks about "Planning Cassini's Grand Finale."
Very nice video! :thumbup:
Very nice video! :thumbup:
Saturn Moon Enceladus Is First Alien 'Water World' with Complex Organics
Complex organic molecules have been discovered for the first time coming from the depths of Saturn's moon Enceladus, a new study reported.
Spacecraft scheduled to launch soon could explore what this new discovery says about the chances of life within icy moons like Enceladus, the study's researchers said.
The sixth largest of Saturn's moons, Enceladus is only about 314 miles (505 kilometers) in diameter. This makes the moon small enough to fit inside the borders of Arizona. [Photos of Saturn's Icy Moon Enceladus]
In 2005, NASA's Cassini spacecraft detected plumes of water vapor and icy particles erupting from Enceladus, revealing the existence of a giant ocean hidden under the moon's frozen shell. Because there is life virtually wherever there is water on Earth, these findings suggested that life might also exist on Enceladus.
Previously, scientists had detected only simple organic (carbon-based) compounds, each less than about five carbon atoms in size, in the plumes of Enceladus. Now, researchers have detected complex organic molecules from the moon, including some at least 15 carbon atoms in size.
[...]
In other words, Cassini detected electromagnetic waves in the audio frequency range
Earth and the moon play "peekaboo" behind Saturn's rings in this image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Citizen scientist Kevin Gill processed the image using data collected on April 13, 2017, about five months before the mission ended with a crash-dive into Saturn. — Hanneke Weitering
04 September 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, akin to the famous hexagon seen deeper down in Saturn's clouds. This suggests that the lower-altitude hexagon may influence what happens up above, and that it could be a towering structure spanning hundreds of kilometres in height.
Title Saturn at equinox
Released 18/03/2019 9:00 am
Copyright NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Description
Saturn is famous for its bright, glorious rings but in this picture, taken during Saturn's 2009 equinox, the rings are cast in a different light as sunlight hits the rings edge-on.
The equinox is a point in a planet's orbit where the Sun shines directly overhead at the equator. It occurs twice per orbit and on Earth it happens in March and September. At the equinox, day and night are almost equal and the Sun rises due east and sets due west. This year, for northern hemisphere dwellers, the spring equinox occurs on 20 March.
Further afield, the international Cassini mission captured a Saturnian equinox for the first time on 12 August 2009. Saturn's equinoxes occur approximately every 15 Earth years and the next one will take place on 6 May 2025.
The first map of the global geology of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, has been completed, revealing a dynamic world with dunes, lakes, plains, craters and other terrains. The map is based on data from the international Cassini mission, which performed more than 120 flybys of Titan during its time at the Saturn system, between 2004 and 2017.
Huygens landing spin mystery solved