Saturn News

Saturn has been known since prehistoric times. Galileo was the first to observe it with a telescope in 1610; he noted its odd appearance but was confused by it. Early observations of Saturn were complicated by the fact that the Earth passes through the plane of Saturn's rings every few years as Saturn moves in its orbit. A low resolution image of Saturn therefore changes drastically. It was not until 1659 that Christiaan Huygens correctly inferred the geometry of the rings. Saturn's rings remained unique in the known solar system until 1977 when very faint rings were discovered around Uranus (and shortly thereafter around Jupiter and Neptune).

Saturn was first visited by NASA's Pioneer 11 in 1979 and later by a class=link href="voyager-marks-30-years-of-flight.txt">Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. Cassini (a joint NASA / ESA project) arrived on July 1, 2004 and will orbit Saturn for at least four years.

Saturn is the least dense of the planets; its specific gravity (0.7) is less than that of water.

Like Jupiter, Saturn is about 75% hydrogen and 25% helium with traces of water, methane, ammonia and "rock", similar to the composition of the primordial Solar Nebula from which the solar system was formed.

Saturn has a prominent system of rings, consisting mostly of ice particles with a smaller amount of rocky debris and dust. Sixty known moons orbit the planet. Titan, Saturn's largest and the Solar System's second largest moon (after Jupiter's Ganymede), is larger than the planet Mercury and is the only moon in the Solar System to possess a significant atmosphere.

The combined NASA/ESA Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan arrived in orbit around Saturn in 2004 and will continue feeding back data until at least 2008. NASA is responsible for the Cassini Saturn Orbiter while the ESA built the Huygens lander that touched down on Titan in January 2005.

Current Saturn News

Is That Saturn's Moon Titan or Utah? 4 Mar 2010 at 12:03pm  Planetary scientists, who have been puzzling for years over the surface features on Saturn's moon Titan, have now found some recognizable analogies to a type of terrain on Earth known as karst topography. Read more... On the JPL Blog: Road-Tripping to Rhea with Cassini 1 Mar 2010 at 12:03pm  On Tuesday, March 2, 2010, NASA's Cassini spacecraft will make its closest encounter yet with Saturn’s second largest moon. Read more... Cassini Finds Plethora of Plumes, Hotspots at Enceladus 23 Feb 2010 at 12:02pm  Newly released images from Cassini's November swoop over Saturn's icy moon Enceladus reveal a forest of new jets spraying from prominent fractures crossing the south polar region. Read more... Behold the Violent History of Saturn's White Whale Moon 19 Feb 2010 at 12:02pm  Like the battered white whale Moby Dick taunting Captain Ahab, Saturn's moon Prometheus surges toward the viewer in a 3-D image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Read more... Cassini Shoots New Close-Ups of Death Star-like Moon 16 Feb 2010 at 12:02pm  Blazing through its closest pass of the Saturnian moon Mimas on Feb. 13, Cassini sent back striking close-ups of the moon likened to the Death Star from "Star Wars" and the enormous crater scarring its surface. Read more... Cassini Set to Do Retinal Scan of Saturnian Eyeball 11 Feb 2010 at 12:02pm  On Feb. 13, 2010, NASA's Cassini spacecraft will make its closest examination yet of Mimas, Saturn's eyeball-shaped moon that has also been likened to the Death Star of "Star Wars." Read more... NASA Extends Cassini's Tour of Saturn, Continuing International Cooperation f... 3 Feb 2010 at 12:02pm  NASA will extend the international Cassini-Huygens mission to explore Saturn and its moons to 2017. Read more... Prometheus: Over Easy 28 Jan 2010 at 12:01pm  Looking for all intents and purposes like a celestial egg after a session in Saturn's skillet, Prometheus displayed its pockmarked, irregular surface for NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Jan. 27, 2010. Read more... Route 66: Cassini's Next Look at Titan 27 Jan 2010 at 12:01pm  Sixteen days after last visiting Saturn's largest moon, NASA's Cassini spacecraft returns for another look-see of the cloud-shrouded moon - this time from on high. Read more... Groovy Hills Rising from Titan Surface 25 Jan 2010 at 12:01pm  Hills with a wrinkly radial pattern stand out in a new radar image captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Dec. 28, 2009. Read more...

Saturn and Mission Resources

Explore the Saturn System with Cassini-Huygens The Cassini orbiter and the Huygens probe are now exploring the magnificent and mysterious planet Saturn, its emblematic rings and its extended family of at least 33 moons. Together they comprise the most complex and ambitious mission ever sent to another world. There is no doubt that, over the next several years, we will be continually surprised, dumbfounded and delighted with the discoveries they will radio back to us on Earth. Enthusiast compositions of the Huygens images While ESA slowly releases images from Huygens, full collections of Huygens imagery have already been processed and refined well beyond anything ESA has done - and you can download them yourself. Target Titan Discovery Channel resource covering different aspects of the Huygens mission. ESOC Virtual Tour Pay a virtual visit to ESA's Spacecraft Operations Centre. Music2Titan Four pieces of music accompanied the Huygens probe. The main goal of this website is that these pieces of music will arouse the interest of the general public about this adventure and leave a trace of humankind in the unknown. Titan Imagery Raw images from Saturn's moon. The Planetary Society's Huygens Weblog: Bringing you Huygens Mission Events As They Happen! The HASI-PWA team on Huygens has given The Planetary access to the data from their "microphone, " so that we could make some "Sounds from Titan, " with a little help from Society friend Greg Delory at Berkeley. Like the pictures I can't tell what they mean yet, but I think I can hear the whoosh of Huygens' descent! Huygens probe at Titan On this page, highlights of the ESA TV programme will be available shortly after each segment, as downloads in Windows Media Player and QuickTime. ESA Cassini-Huygens Mission Home Page The European Space Agency's home page for the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn. Conatins news, images and animations. NASA Cassini-Huygens Mission Home Page NASA's home page for the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn. Cassini Huygens- VideoTalk Archive VideoTalk is an exciting multimedia feature that discusses the questions we hope will be answered by pioneering space exploration. What will the Huygens probe find at the surface of Titan? How did the chemistry of the Universe make life on Earth possible? VideoTalk looks at the Cassini-Huygens voyage of discovery to a distant and intriguing moon. Destination: Titan Titan, Saturn's largest moon, truly deserves its name. Larger than the planet Mercury, it has a dense atmosphere filled with photochemical smog that shrouds the moon's surface in mystery. What lies beneath? The only way to be sure is to send a probe through the clouds. The Cassini craft has taken seven years to carry the Huygens probe to Titan. News@nature.com watches as its moment in the spotlight draws near. Cassini-Huygens - From Wikipedia Comprehensive resource on the ongoing mission and the various experiments that will be carried out. CICLOPS: Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations Various images from Cassini with commentaries. Saturn Observation Campaign This program gives sky enthusiasts of all abilities the opportunity to share the splendor of Saturn with their local community. Christiaan Huygens Some background information on the man after whom the Titan probe is named. Giovanni Domenico Cassini Some background information on the man after whom the Saturn probe is named. Saturn Detailed information on the sixth planet from the Sun from SolarViews. Saturn Detailed information on the sixth planet from the Sun from NinePlanets. Saturn Detailed information on the sixth planet from the Sun from Wikpedia.