The excitement of scientists upon Cassini-Huygens entering the Saturnian System was reserved mostly for Titan, Saturn itself, and its rings. That the other moons might be something more than cratered and dead ice bodies was hardly expected. Enter Iapetus. This strange moon between Phoebe and Titan helped write the exciting new chapter of Saturn moon…

There is a poster-sized image displayed on a board in the public-accessible lobby of the Charles P. Sonnett Space Sciences Building on the University of Arizona campus that correctly portrays Hyperion as one of the reddest objects in our solar system, along side Mars and some of the transneptunion objects. The colors of Hyperion, in…

Titan, the largest of the Saturnian moons, with the thick planet-like atmosphere. The moon with the Earth-like surface, of deeply cut fluid channels, broad sea-like basins, pebbled channel beds, lakes, wind-driven sediments, and occasional craters. The alien moon with water ice as rock carved by periodically flowing methane streams and rivers, with hydrocarbons snowing from…

Rhea might otherwise be the most boring of the Saturnian moons, what with its ancient craters, airless surface, and lack of any recent activity. But therein lies the mystery. Why are there two distinct regions of craters, suggesting an early resurfacing event, and what are the wispy features on the surface that resemble the more…

Somewhere in the raw image above, perhaps the tiny dot in the lower right, may be Polydeuces, a tiny moon discovered by Cassini-Huygens and announced on February 24, 2005 with the following from a mission news report: “Another discovery was a tiny moon, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) across, recently named Polydeuces. Polydeuces is a…

The beautiful wispy terrain on Dione has long tantalized planetary scientists looking over low resolution images of the moon. When Cassini flew by Dione in December 16, 2004 it revealed the wisps to be bright ice cliffs created by the fracturing of the moon’s surface, a result completely unexpected by scientists. This would not be…

Little is known about the tiny moon Helene other than its size (32 kilometers, or 20 miles) and its status as a Trojan moon of Dione (along with Polydeuces). All three moons share an orbit, but Helene lies 60 degrees ahead of Dione and Polydeuces lies 60 degrees behind Dione. More Information Cassini-Huygens Website Saturn’s…

Calypso is a Trojan moon of Tethys orbiting Saturn 60 degrees behind Tethys. Cassini snapped the best image yet of Calypso on September 23, 2005, revealing a colorful and potato-shaped object. More Information Cassini-Huygens Website Saturn’s Moons section Calypso Information Table of Contents Introduction Pan Atlas Prometheus Pandora Janus Epimetheus Mimas Pallene and Methone Enceladus…

Ithaca Chasma is an ancient and gigantic rift cutting across the heavily cratered surface of Tethys. Less surprising than many of the other moons of Saturn, Tethys does have its own mysteries, including bright crater floors, younger plains, and evidence of very early activity that resulted in Ithaca Chasma. More Information Cassini-Huygens Website Saturn’s Moons…

Telesto is a Trojan moon of Tethys orbiting Saturn 60 degrees ahead of Tethys. Cassini took the best ever images of this tiny moon on October 11, 2005. More Information Cassini-Huygens Website Saturn’s Moons section Telesto Information Table of Contents Introduction Pan Atlas Prometheus Pandora Janus Epimetheus Mimas Pallene and Methone Enceladus Telesto Tethys Calypso…

Out of nowhere emerged a Saturn moon to rival Titan in mystery and activity. Here, suddenly, was an ice world not dead but alive and active, spewing out water ice and oxygen from a youthful surface, creating only the second moon atmosphere known in the Saturnian system. Because Enceladus is so small, the atmosphere is…

Two of the newest moons discovered by Cassini, Pallene and Methone are tiny worlds that lie between the orbits of Enceladus and Mimas. The image above may or may not show these two moons, but the camera used by Cassini to snap this image was pointing toward Pallene on September 29, 2005. More Information Cassini-Huygens…

Herschel Crater covers nearly a third of the diameter of Saturn’s small moon Mimas, helping it to resemble the Death Star from Star Wars. Some of the most breathtaking images taken by Cassini of Saturn and its rings have included Mimas in the shot. Crater upon crater upon crater indicate the surface of Mimas is…

The tiny and irregular shaped Epimetheus orbits Saturn with a similar moon called Janus, both of which may have formed when a larger body was broken up during a collision earlier in its history. Because the density of Epimetheus is less than that of water, it may be porous, perhaps just a pile of rubble…

Janus is quite similar to Epimetheus. Both moon share the same orbit and trade places with each other every four years. Janus is heavily cratered and likely very ancient. More Information Cassini-Huygens Website Saturn’s Moons section Janus Information Table of Contents Introduction Pan Atlas Prometheus Pandora Janus Epimetheus Mimas Pallene and Methone Enceladus Telesto Tethys…

The craters on the tiny moon Pandora are muted compared to craters on larger moons because they are filled with collapsed debris. The surface is also covered in fine icy material, perhaps as a result of Pandora’s role as a ring shepherd moon, keeping Saturn’s F ring in line. More Information Cassini-Huygens Website Saturn’s Moons…

Prometheus is another shepherd moon of Saturn’s F ring. The gravitational tug of shepherd moons and their often eccentric orbits help shape unique structures in Saturn’s rings. More Information Cassini-Huygens Website Saturn’s Moons section Prometheus Information Table of Contents Introduction Pan Atlas Prometheus Pandora Janus Epimetheus Mimas Pallene and Methone Enceladus Telesto Tethys Calypso Helene…

Atlas is a tiny shepherd moon just outside Saturn’s A ring. Very little is know about this moon. More Information Cassini-Huygens Website Saturn’s Moons section Atlas Information Table of Contents Introduction Pan Atlas Prometheus Pandora Janus Epimetheus Mimas Pallene and Methone Enceladus Telesto Tethys Calypso Helene Dione Polydeuces Rhea Titan Hyperion Iapetus Phoebe

Pan is the innermost known moon of Saturn. It is a shepherd moon that creates the Encke Gap in Saturn’s A ring. More Information Cassini-Huygens Website Saturn’s Moons section Pan Information Table of Contents Introduction Pan Atlas Prometheus Pandora Janus Epimetheus Mimas Pallene and Methone Enceladus Telesto Tethys Calypso Helene Dione Polydeuces Rhea Titan Hyperion…

The moons of Saturn, now numbering 47 (when Cassini-Huygens launched from the Earth in 1997 there were only 18 known moons orbiting Saturn,) have changed planetary scientists’ view of our solar system yet again. Titan, the largest and long hidden beneath a thick opaque atmosphere, has been revealed by Cassini-Huygens to be a very Earth-like…

I ran across this great news on Digg.com. Pay attention, folks. We are turning the exponential bend… “LifePort has received approval from the FAA test its space elevator prototype. In early fall, a balloon will carry a elevator ribbon up to a mile high. Robotic lifters will then crawl up and down the cable testing…

The next orbiter mission to Mars was scheduled to launch on Wednesday, August 10, 2005 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA. Launch actually occurred two days later, in a flawless event that resulted in a healthy spacecraft heading to the Red Planet. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) carries with it the highest resolution camera yet sent…

The Earth has it, Io has it, and now a third world can be added to list. I’m talking about active volcanism. The Cassini spacecraft finds active icy volcanism reshaping the surface of Saturn’s tiny moon Enceladus and spewing water vapor and ice particles into Saturn’s E-ring. What a day for planetary science! read more…

The tiny moon orbiting Saturn named Enceladus has become the third body in the solar system known to have current volcanic activity driven by internal heating, after Earth and Jupiter’s moon Io. The surprising discovery was made after the Cassini spacecraft performed a close flyby of Enceladus on July 14, 2005 and returned the closest…

The discovery of a tenth planet orbiting our Sun was announced today by Dr. Michael E. Brown of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, USA. The planet is at least the size of Pluto and perhaps twice as large. It has been designated 2003UB313 for now while the name suggested by its discoverers…

Burt Rutan and Sir Richard Branson have agreed to form a new company to build new sub-orbital spacecraft for the emerging personal spaceflight industry. “The Spaceship Company” will provide equipment and launch vehicles using technology licensed from Scaled Composites for space tourism operators, including Virgin Galactic. Burt Rutan is president of Scaled Composites, the company…

The European Space Agency’s SMART-1 spacecraft continues to capture images of the Moon in a mission to test new technologies and return new data about our nearest celestial neighbor. In one of the latest images, Hadley Rille, an enormous lava channel over 3.3 billion years old, stretches toward Mount Hadley in the upper right. Geologists…

NASA grounded the remaining space shuttle fleet today after video of yesterday’s Discovery launch revealed that a large piece of insulation foam had fallen off the fuel tank. The debris did not hit the Discovery orbiter but the video footage was a frightening reminder of a similar incident that led to the Columbia disaster in…

NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery successfully launched this morning from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. The return to flight comes 2 ½ years after the Space Shuttle disaster claimed the lives of seven astronauts returning to Earth after a successful mission. The liftoff occurred at 10:39 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The return to flight has…

The Cassini spacecraft recently returned a raw image of Saturn dwarfing its tiny moon Mimas. On Monday, July 18, 2005 Cassini was approximately 1,642,603 km (1,020,666 miles) away from Mimas and heading out toward its furthest position away from Saturn during this orbit. Orbit 12 will begin on July 24, 2005 with distant flybys of…

On February 20, 2005, the Cassini spacecraft took a picture of Pandora and Prometheus hard a work shepherding water ice particles and dust into a distinct F-ring unit within Saturn’s larger ring structure. Historically, three main rings were discovered around Saturn, labeled C, B and A from the inside out. Later, fainter rings and structures…

Standing kilometers tall, roaming the desert in crisscrossing paths, vacuuming or depositing dust, and possibly contributing to albedo (surface light reflection) and climate changes, images of dust devils in motion on Mars have been captured by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. Spirit captured images of gusts and whirlwinds full of dust marching across Gusev Crater…

The above image is a view of Enceladus as the Cassini spacecraft drew closer and closer on Thursday, July 14, 2005. By the time Cassini had passed the small moon it had come to within 172 km (107 miles) of the surface, the closest flyby yet in a 4-year mission to tour and collect data…

Enceladus, a tiny moon of Saturn, may be a world of water ice volcanoes actively resurfacing the surrounding terrain, according to planetary scientists. Surprised by tantalizing evidence of activity, scientists believe Enceladus may be the primary source of material for one of Saturn’s rings. Data from Titan has shown that water ice in the outer…

Astronomers using data from the Keck I Observatory on top of Mauna Kea mountain in Hawaii have discovered an exoplanet in a triple star system. The planet, only slightly larger than Jupiter, is very close to the central star in the system, completing one orbit in just 3.3 days. The other two stars orbit each…

When the world’s foremost expert on impact cratering mentions that his preconceived notions about comets have changed at least twice in the past week, it is time to rewrite the book on the subject. Dr. H. Jay Melosh, professor and a member of the Deep Impact science team, spoke before a packed crowd Saturday night,…

The moons of Saturn are a strange assortment of worlds. When the Cassini spacecraft takes the highest resolution images ever of each new world, it generally captures something that leaves scientists and space buffs scratching their heads. Enter the next head-scratcher: Hyperion. This tiny water ice moon looks like a sponge and may in fact…