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Seeking signs of life at the glacier's edge

Microbes living at the edges of Arctic ice sheets could help researchers pinpoint evidence for similar microorganisms that could have evolved on Mars, the Jovian moon Europa, or Saturn's moon Enceladus.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created May 17, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Image: Saturn's brightly reflective moon Enceladus

(Phys.org) -- A brightly reflective Enceladus appears before Saturn's rings, while the planet's larger moon Titan looms in the distance.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 11, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Enceladus on display in newest images from Cassini

The latest images are in from Saturn’s very own personal paparazzi, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, fresh from its early morning flyby of the ice-spewing moon Enceladus. And, being its last closeup for ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 03, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1

Cassini finds Saturn moon Phoebe has planet-like qualities

(Phys.org) -- Data from NASA's Cassini mission reveal Saturn's moon Phoebe has more planet-like qualities than previously thought.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Apr 27, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (10) | comments 16 | with audio podcast

Research estimates how long Titan's chemical factory has been in business

Saturn's giant moon Titan hides within a thick, smoggy atmosphere that's well-known to scientists as one of the most complex chemical environments in the solar system. It's a productive "factory" cranking ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Apr 24, 2012 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Cassini sees objects blazing trails in Saturn ring

(Phys.org) -- Scientists working with images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft have discovered strange half-mile-sized (kilometer-sized) objects punching through parts of Saturn's F ring, leaving glittering trails ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Apr 24, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Cassini successfully flies over Enceladus

These raw, unprocessed images of Saturn's moons Enceladus and Tethys were taken on April 14, 2012, by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Apr 17, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (18) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

How did the equatorial ridge on Saturn's moon Iapetus form?

Saturn's moon Iapetus is one of the most unusual moons in our solar system.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Apr 01, 2012 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (9) | comments 11

Icy Moons through Cassini's Eyes

(PhysOrg.com) -- These raw, unprocessed images of Saturn's moons Enceladus, Janus and Dione were taken on March 27 and 28, 2012, by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 29, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Amazon CEO plans to raise sunken Apollo 11 engines

(AP) -- Long before Jeff Bezos became an Internet mogul, he was enthralled by the mysteries of space.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 28, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 2

Is it snowing microbes on Enceladus?

There's a tiny moon orbiting beyond Saturn's rings that's full of promise, and maybe -- just maybe -- microbes.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 28, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (12) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Cassini makes simultaneous measurements of Saturn's nightside aurora and electric current system

(PhysOrg.com) -- Since the NASA / ESA Cassini-Huygens spacecraft arrived at Saturn in 2004, astronomers and space scientists have been able to study the ringed planet and its moons in great detail. Now, for ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 27, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Probe mission to explore Titan's miniscule rainfall proposed

(PhysOrg.com) -- Dr. Ralph Lorenz of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL) outside of Baltimore has given a talk at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in Texas outlining what has ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 23, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast weblog

Massive ice avalanches on Iapetus

We've seen avalanches on Mars, but now scientists have found avalanches taking place on an unlikely place in our solar system: Saturn’s walnut-shaped, two-toned moon Iapetus. And these aren’t just ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 22, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Cassini sees Saturn stressing out Enceladus

(PhysOrg.com) -- Images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft have, for the first time, enabled scientists to correlate the spraying of jets of water vapor from fissures on Saturn's moon Enceladus with the way Saturn's ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 20, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn, along with Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, is classified as a gas giant. Together, these four planets are sometimes referred to as the Jovian, meaning "Jupiter-like", planets.

Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn (that became the namesake of Saturday), equated to the Greek Kronos (the Titan father of Zeus) the Babylonian Ninurta and to the Hindu Shani. Saturn's symbol represents the god's sickle (Unicode: ♄).

The planet Saturn is composed of hydrogen, with small proportions of helium and trace elements. The interior consists of a small core of rock and ice, surrounded by a thick layer of metallic hydrogen and a gaseous outer layer. The outer atmosphere is generally bland in appearance, although long-lived features can appear. Wind speeds on Saturn can reach 1,800 km/h, significantly faster than those on Jupiter. Saturn has a planetary magnetic field intermediate in strength between that of Earth and the more powerful field around Jupiter.

Saturn has a prominent system of rings, consisting mostly of ice particles with a smaller amount of rocky debris and dust. Sixty-one known moons orbit the planet, not counting hundreds of "moonlets" within the rings. 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.

For more information about Saturn, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Related topics: cassini spacecraft , nasa , moon , solar system , earth