http://cache.io9.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/io9.com.png http://io9.com/tag/cassini http://io9.com/tag/cassini

Feast your eyes on one of the most puzzling planetary mysteries our solar system has to offer. In this photograph of Saturn's north pole, captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in 2009, clouds can be seen encircling the planet at about 77 degrees north latitude. Even at such a high parallel, the massive six-sided jet stream has a diameter more than twice that of Earth's. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5878325&view=rss&microfeed=true

More than 60 moons are known to orbit Saturn, but few of them are as visually striking as Iapetus. Named formally after the Greek mythological Titan, Iapetus is sometimes referred to as the "painted," or "yin-yang" moon, due to puzzling variations in its surface composition. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5876050&view=rss&microfeed=true

The University of Arizona's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera is an incredible piece of equipment. Currently circling the Red Planet aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the instrument is capable of capturing photographs of the Martian surface at unprecedented resolution, averaging about 25 centimeters per pixel. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5875075&view=rss&microfeed=true

The wide angle camera onboard NASA's Cassini orbiter has been capturing incredible shots of Saturn and its various moons for years, and if this photo is any indication, it has no intentions of letting up. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5873814&view=rss&microfeed=true

The Cassini mission to Saturn has been bountiful with the gorgeous pictures in the past — including one gorgeous shot that wound up in the last Star Trek movie. But these newly released images of Titan might be the most arresting Cassini pictures yet. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5870534&view=rss&microfeed=true

How about this — I'll tell you a couple of things that it isn't. It's not an iridescent oil slick, and it's not the interference patterns of a soap film. But you knew that already, didn't you? After all, this post is tagged as space porn. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5861019&view=rss&microfeed=true

Since 2004, NASA's Cassini orbiter has been collecting data on Saturn, its rings and its moons, capturing breathtaking images of them all as it courses through space. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5853004&view=rss&microfeed=true

Call it moonception, if you'd like. Astronomers say that a moon-with-a-moon scenario could explain some of the strange features of Iapetus, the third-largest of Saturn's 62-known moons. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5848485&view=rss&microfeed=true

The latest awesome image from the Cassini orbiter gives us an unusually rotated view of the rings around Saturn. They essential form the largest sundial in the known universe, revealing Saturn's seasons, just like Earth sundials tell the time. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5848941&view=rss&microfeed=true

Sometimes, things just line up perfectly. Like in this amazing photo of five of Saturn's moons together. This is no composite, this is one photo with five moons in view. You can't actually see Saturn itself, just the planet's rings. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5839618&view=rss&microfeed=true

This image looks like it can't possibly be real, but it is. Taken back in 2006 when the Cassini spacecraft was orbiting the sixth planet, this photo captures a nighttime view of Saturn as light sparkles off of its rings. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5837771&view=rss&microfeed=true

It's pretty hard not to notice the gigantic looming arrow in this picture of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. The striking, chevron-shaped formation is roughly the size of Texas. And while it may look like an enormous HUMANS, LOOK HERE sign, recently published research by NASA scientists suggests that it's actually a gigantic storm making its way across the moon's equatorial region. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5831431&view=rss&microfeed=true

Check out the most intense Saturn storm that the Cassini spacecraft has ever recorded. You can see it overtaking its own tail as it zooms around Saturn's Northern hemisphere. (The tail is the blue clouds to the South and West.) More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5818879&view=rss&microfeed=true

We've seen spectacular shots from NASA's Cassini spacecraft previously, and now filmmaker Chris Abbas has set a collection of Cassini stills to a little Trent Reznor piano. It's definitely a stirring look at Saturn and its surroundings. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5808657&view=rss&microfeed=true

Of all the hundreds of moons in the solar system, none are weirder than Saturn's satellite Iapetus. We've already talked about its walnut-shaped ridge, but that's nothing compared to the weird optical illusion that lets it disappear from our telescopes. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5782793&view=rss&microfeed=true

This is a demo reel for a future IMAX film called Outside In, which recreates a journey through the solar system using only images taken from actual spaceflights - made by satellites visiting our neighboring planets. Effects artist and cinematographer Stephen Van Vuuren animated thousands of still shots from Cassini spacecraft's Saturn flyby, knitting them together to create a seamless journey toward the gas giant, past one of its moons and through its awe-inspiring rings. It's one of the most mind-blowing, beautiful space movies I've ever seen - especially when you consider that the entire thing was shot on location by a satellite zooming around Saturn. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5777938&view=rss&microfeed=true

The Cassini orbiter mission has revealed some absolutely stunning pictures of Saturn and its moons, and now it's branching into video as well. Here's color video of Hyperion, a very strange moon located 800 million miles from Earth. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5706744&view=rss&microfeed=true

Saturn's polar regions are home to brilliant auroras created by the collisions of charged particles above its magnetic fields, just like on Earth. And now you can see Saturn's southern lights in all their infrared glory. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5648211&view=rss&microfeed=true

If life exists on Saturn's hydrogen- and methane-rich moon Titan, there will be two sure signs: hydrogen depletion near the lunar surface, and less acetylene than we'd expect. The Cassini probe has found both. So...could there be life on Titan? More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5555072&view=rss&microfeed=true

Pink Floyd only wishes their weird excursions were as vivid and bizarre as this color-enhanced image of Saturn's moon Enceladus, with its famous plumes of spraying liquid backlit by the sun. Click the link for the high-res version. [NASA] More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5542254&view=rss&microfeed=true

Years of research into Saturn's rings, plus new information from the Cassini spacecraft in orbit around the ringed gas giant, have resulted in a comprehensive new study of the planet. These images are among the most stunning from that study. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5496053&view=rss&microfeed=true

Iapetus may be Saturn's most enigmatic moon, with an unknown dark material splattering most of the surface and a strange ridge that makes one side of the moon resemble a walnut. Astronomers hope the Cassini spacecraft can unlock its mysteries. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5334359&view=rss&microfeed=true

Saturn's tiny moon Daphnis orbits a gap in the A Ring, causing small waves with its gravity. Now, as the gas giant approaches its equinox, the Cassini probe has captured the waves on camera for the first time. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5329449&view=rss&microfeed=true

This isn't a newly-discovered Rothko painting or some kind of abstract masterpiece — it's the atmosphere of Saturn, photographed four different times on the same day. The Cassini space probe used different filters to show the storms in the planet's atmosphere in different lights. (The color is arbitrary, but gorgeous.) Click to enlarge. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5096398&view=rss&microfeed=true

This stunning infrared image of Saturn's northern region shows a luminous aurora with the planet's mottled rings below. The aurora appeared in an area that the Hubble Space Telescope can't see, so no one knew it was there until Cassini spotted it recently. What's really weird is that astronomers aren't really sure what's causing it, since this aurora doesn't conform to known models of aurora formation. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5086683&view=rss&microfeed=true

When other planets do storms, they do 'em right. The Cassini spacecraft snapped photos of this monster thunderstorm on Saturn that's been raging for five months now, each lightning bolt packing 10,000 times more juice than it's Earthly counterparts. Jupiter's still got the illest storm in the solar system with it's almost four-century old Great Red Spot, but Saturn's storm's not too shabby — it's that blotch down in the lower right-hand part of the planet. That bright spot just below the rings? That's Saturn's moon Tethys looking way bigger than it should because it's in the foreground, just to give you a rough sense of scale. (from NASA) More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=385982&view=rss&microfeed=true

It's bigger than Mercury, has dune seas like Tatooine (or Arrakis) and has the coolest name of any moon: Titan. The Cassini spacecraft is still revealing many of its secrets, with another flyby scheduled just a few weeks from now. Here are five reasons to get excited about Saturn's largest satellite. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=382911&view=rss&microfeed=true

NASA may have failed to prove there's an underground ocean on Saturn's moon Enceladus, but now scientists claim they've found outstanding new evidence that there may be a vast ocean under the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. In this newly released image, Titan peeks out from behind Saturn while another moon, Tethys, streaks past the planet's shadowy rings. Click through for a gorgeous Titan gallery. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=371616&view=rss&microfeed=true

Space probe Cassini dove headlong into the massive, icy plumes of liquid that spew from the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus. It managed to get some amazing images of the southern pole of the moon (pictured here), but sadly a mysterious software glitch prevented it from transmitting data about the moon jizz back to Earth. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=369024&view=rss&microfeed=true

The Cassini Space Probe will fly dangerously close to Saturn's moon Enceladus tomorrow, skirting along the edge of the moon's huge geysers to sample water-ice, dust and gas from their plumes. Cassini's particle analyzers will study the composition of the plumes in the hope of settling, once and for all, whether they may come from a buried ocean. At its closest approach, Cassini will only be about 30 miles from the moon, and the daredevil stunt requires amazing technical finesse. The image above is an artist's conception of the flyby. Click through for two gorgeous photos of Enceladus' crazy fountains. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=366241&view=rss&microfeed=true

This is a total eclipse of the sun by Saturn, as seen by NASA's Cassini space probe. I totally want this image painted on black velvet. This famous image is just one of the photos that Cassini Imaging Team leader Carolyn Porco showed off during her talk about Saturn and its moons, now online at TED. [TED, via Runaway Pancake] More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=347645&view=rss&microfeed=true

Do these water jets come from an underground ocean orbiting Saturn? If so, it could nurture the only extraterrestrial life-forms in our solar system. But one scientist says that water is too pure to come from a buried ocean on Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=335061&view=rss&microfeed=true

You can vote for the sexiest image of Saturn and its moons from the Cassini space probe, until Dec. 30. You even get to rate every space photo from 1 to 10, bringing a whole new meaning to "science porn." This pic shows the "dragon storm" on Saturn, a disturbance so fierce it kicked up radio waves. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=332074&view=rss&microfeed=true

Atlas and Pan, two of Saturn's moons, look like flying saucers in these new images from the Cassini space probe. The cause? Unique equatorial ridges. Image by Peter Thomas and Carolyn Porco for CICLOPS. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=331122&view=rss&microfeed=true