This article explores the different formation scenarios of the Kronian moons system in the context of a highly dissipative Saturn, with the objective of identifying the most likely of these […]
Saturn
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Enceladus, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Missions & Hardware, Saturn, Status Report
Peculiar Rainbows in Saturn’s E Ring: Uncovering Luminious Bands Near Enceladus
We report observations of stripe-like features in Enceladus’ plumes captured simultaneously by Cassini’s VIMS-IR and ISS NAC instruments during flyby E17, with similar patterns seen in VIMS-IR data from flyby […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Enceladus, Icy Worlds, Saturn, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Enceladus’s Tidal Heating
Saturn raises a time-dependent tide on its small moon Enceladus, due to the eccentricity of the orbit. As shown in a companion paper (Goldreich et al.), the resulting tidal heating […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Icy Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release, Saturn, Titan, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Tidal Energy Measurements Help Understand Titan’s Composition And Orbital History
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientists are studying Saturn’s moon Titan to assess its tidal dissipation rate, the energy lost as it orbits the ringed planet with its massive gravitational force. […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Saturn, Status Report, Titan
Titan’s Fluvial and Lacustrine Landscapes
In this chapter we begin with a review of Titan’s fluvial and lacustrine landscapes as observed with Cassini remote sensing data, and what the many discoveries have revealed about Titan’s […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Impact events, Jupiter, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Meteorites & Asteroids, Saturn, Status Report, Uranus
The Current Cratering Rate on the Regular Satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus
We aim to compute the impact rates for objects with a diameter of 1 km onto the regular satellites of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus using our latest dynamical simulations of […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Icy Worlds, Press Release, Saturn, Titan, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
How Titan Maintains Its Atmosphere
Southwest Research Institute partnered with the Carnegie Institution for Science to perform laboratory experiments to better understand how Saturn’s moon Titan can maintain its unique nitrogen-rich atmosphere.
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exploration Gear & Tech, Gas Giants, Icy Worlds, Jupiter, Saturn, Status Report
Simultaneous Evolutionary Fits for Jupiter and Saturn Incorporating Fuzzy Cores
With the recent realization that there likely are stably-stratified regions in the interiors of both Jupiter and Saturn, we construct new non-adiabatic, inhomogeneous evolutionary models with the same microphysics for […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Jupiter, Neptune, Press Release, Saturn, Uranus
Hubble Celebrates A Decade Of Tracking Outer Planets
Encountering Neptune in 1989, NASA’s Voyager mission completed humankind’s first close-up exploration of the four giant outer planets of our solar system. Collectively, since their launch in 1977, the twin […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release, Saturn, Titan, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Titan Has An Insulating Methane-rich Crust Up To Six Miles Thick
Saturn’s largest moon Titan is the only place other than Earth known to have an atmosphere and liquids in the form of rivers, lakes and seas on its surface. Because […]