Saturn Archives

The four giant planets as seen by Hubble WFC3/UVIS at different near-UV wavelengths, and processed by Judy Schmidt (note - these images are not shown to scale). The Jupiter and Saturn images are constructed from F343N (red), F275W (green), and F225 (blue), whereas a lack of observations for Uranus and Neptune required us to shift to redder wavelengths: F547M (red), F467M (green), and F336W (blue) for the Ice Giants. Jupiter and Ganymede were observed 2017-02-02 at 12:16UT, Saturn was observed at 2018-06-07 at 00:06UT, Uranus on 2015-08-30 at 10:08UT, and Neptune on 2015-09-02 at 07:58UT. Strong UV absorption is visible at the poles of Jupiter and Saturn due to the nature of highaltitude aerosols and the potential link to auroral chemistry. Red vortices, such as Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and Oval BA (lower left), appear dark due to the blue-absorbing chromophore responsible for their red colours. Uranus’ bright north polar cap of aerosols, and its narrow rings, are just visible in this image. Neptune’s banding, and some bright high clouds (appearing in pink) can be seen in both northern and southern hemispheres. In addition, Saturn’s rings appear reddish due to UV absorption. Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/Hubble/Judy Schmidt.

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Ice Giant, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn, Status Report, Uranus

Exploring Giant Planet Atmospheres with Habitable Worlds Observatory

by Keith CowingOctober 22, 2025October 22, 2025

Visible and ultraviolet imaging and spectroscopy of Solar System giant planets can set the paradigm for the atmospheric, ionospheric, and magnetospheric processes shaping the diversity of giant exoplanets, brown dwarfs, […]

The continuum-divided spectra of the Saturnian satellites, in the region of the O-D absorption. The red line shows a gaussian fit to the data using a fixed width. Most satellites have separate measurements for the leading and trailing hemispheres, but Hyperion and Phoebe, which are not synchronously rotating, only have single measurements. The O-D absorption is robustly detected at nearly every satellite. -- astro-ph.EP

Dione, Hyperion, Iapetus, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mimas, Phoebe, Rhea, Saturn, Status Report

Deuterated Water Ice On The Satellites Of Saturn

by Keith CowingOctober 17, 2025October 17, 2025

The deuterium to hydrogen ratio in water ice in a planetary body carries important information on the history of water processing and delivery in the protostellar nebula.

Enceladus orbiting within Saturn's E ring Credits: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute larger image

Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Enceladus, Icy Worlds, Saturn, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Icy Ocean World Enceladus Orbits In The Ring It Makes Around Saturn

by Keith CowingOctober 6, 2025

Saturn’s E ring is a huge, fuzzy, donut-shaped circle of particles around Saturn, that puzzled scientists for a long time.

An average of the continuum-removed spectra of the leading and trailing hemispheres of Mimas and Tethys and the leading hemispheres of Dione and Rhea, in black, and of the trailing hemispheres of Dione and Rhea, in red. The lines at the bottom show measured wavelengths of CO2 in different states, including in pure crystalline form and trapped as clathrate in crystalline water ice (Oancea et al. 2012), trapped in amorphous ice (Sandford & Allamandola 1990; G´alvez et al. 2008) and physisorbed onto minerals (Hibbitts & Szanyi 2007), which can lead to a wide range of wavelengths. The shorter wavelength 4.2487 µm line associated with the darker hemispheres of Dione and Rhea appears to have no corresponding absorption in the 2.7 µm region. -- astro-ph.EP

Dione, Enceladus, Hyperion, Iapetus, Icy Worlds, Mimas, Phoebe, Rhea, Saturn, Status Report, Tethys

A JWST Study Of CO2 On The Satellites Of Saturn

by Keith CowingOctober 6, 2025October 6, 2025

Solid state CO2 has been detected throughout the outer solar system, even at temperatures where crystalline CO2 is unstable, requiring that the CO2 be trapped in a separate host material.

The inside of Enceladus larger image -- ESA

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Enceladus, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Saturn, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Cassini Proves The Existence Of Complex Chemistry Within Enceladus’ Ocean

by Keith CowingOctober 1, 2025October 1, 2025

Scientists digging through data collected by the Cassini spacecraft have found new complex organic molecules spewing from Saturn’s moon Enceladus. This is a clear sign that complex chemical reactions are […]

The rings of Saturn and Uranus as imaged by JWST NIRCam. These images provide an empirical example in which the flux of the ring system is comparable to, or even exceeds, that of the planet when observed with NIRCam. The image of Saturn was created using data from JWST GTO 1247.a The image of Uranus was created using data from JWST DD 2739.b -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Proxima Centauri, Saturn, tau Ceti, Uranus

On the Detection Of Exorings in Reflected Light With JWST NIRCam

by Keith CowingSeptember 19, 2025September 19, 2025

When directly imaging a cold giant exoplanet hosting a ring system, the reflected light from the rings can outshine the planet’s thermal emission and reflected-light in the near-infrared.

An artist’s impression of plumes erupting onto the surface of Enceladus. Its fellow moon Titan is seen in the sky, and the distant Sun beyond. Credit ESA/Science Office. Larger image

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Enceladus, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Saturn

Study Questions Oceanic Origin Of Organics In Enceladus’s Plumes

by Keith CowingSeptember 9, 2025September 9, 2025

Organic molecules detected in the watery plumes that spew out from cracks in the surface of Enceladus could be formed through exposure to radiation on Saturn’s icy moon, rather than […]

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Jupiter, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Saturn, Video, Audio, Webcasts, Podcasts, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Video: A Preview Of Future Gas Giant Exploration

by Keith CowingAugust 18, 2025August 18, 2025

Imagine what a future Astrobiology droid might see as it flies through clouds on Jupiter or Saturn looking for biosignatures.

Binary collision-induced H2–He absorption coefficient, α, normalized by the hydrogen and helium gas densities, as function of frequency in the fundamental band, at 296 K. The parato-ortho distribution, is representative of equilibrium H2, just as in Fig. 2. Our model (“this work”), is compared with the model of Abel et al.17 for T = 300K, and with the laboratory measurements of Vitali et al. 18 and Brodbeck et al.19 , both of which were made near 296 K. We note that neither our model nor that of Abel et al. considered the discrete, intercollisional interference dips present in the laboratory spectra. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Ice Giant, Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn, Status Report, Uranus

Improved H2-He and H2-H2 Collision-Induced Absorption Models and Application to Outer-Planet Atmospheres

by Keith CowingJune 15, 2025June 13, 2025

Using state-of-the-art ab initio interaction-induced dipole and potential-energy surfaces for hydrogen-helium (H2-He) pairs, we compute the rototranslational collision-induced absorption coefficient at 40-400 K for frequencies covering 0-4000 cm-1.