A second minor planet may possess Saturn-like rings

There are only five bodies in our solar system that are known to bear rings. The most obvious is the planet Saturn; to a lesser extent, rings of gas and dust also encircle Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. The fifth member of ...

Lunar occultation of Saturn

On the night of Monday August 4, mainland Australia will see Saturn disappear behind the moon. It's the third time this year that the moon and Saturn will perfectly line up, as viewed from our part of the world.

Catch the dramatic June 10th occultation of Saturn by the moon

Some terms in astronomy definitely have a PR problem, and are perhaps due for an overhaul. One such awkward term is occultation, which simply means that one celestial body is passing in front of another from an observer's ...

Latest Cassini images of Enceladus on view

(PhysOrg.com) -- Raw, unprocessed images from the successful Oct. 19 flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus by NASA's Cassini spacecraft provide new views of the moon and the icy jets that burst from its southern polar region. ...

Orion's belt lights up Cassini's view of Enceladus

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Cassini mission will take advantage of the position of two of the three stars in Orion's belt when the spacecraft flies by Saturn's moon Enceladus on Wed., Oct. 19. As the hot, bright stars pass behind ...

SOFIA successfully observes challenging Pluto occultation

(PhysOrg.com) -- On June 23, NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) observed the dwarf planet Pluto as it passed in front of a distant star. This event, known as an "occultation," allowed scientific ...

Astronomers study Kuiper Belt object during stellar occultation

(PhysOrg.com) -- Until now, astronomers have used telescopes to find Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs), moon-sized bodies, and obtain their spectra to determine what types of ices are on their surface. They have also used thermal-imaging ...

page 3 from 3