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cassini

Stargate's Commander Makes Movie For Genius Kids Star Trek: Voyager's holographic doctor, Robert Picardo, joins John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Sarah Michelle Gellar and James Earl Jones in the animated feature Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey. Picardo calls the movie not only entertaining but educational. The film explains quantum physics and breaks down protons, photons, animatter and the big bang theory. What kind of kids are going to watch this movie exactly? The release date is Decemeber 2009. [Scifi]

space porn

Saturn Thunderstorm Would Fry Earth in a Hurry

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)

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Why Titan is the Awesomest Moon in the Solar System

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 »

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A Vector Map of the Unnamed Methane Sea on Titan

Peter Minton is a California teacher who loves to make vector maps in his spare time. His favorite places to map are islands and coastlines, and so when the Cassini-Huygens probe sent back images from Saturn's moon Titan he was happy to discover the geographical features he loves most. There, on the pole of Titan, was a sea full of islands. An unnamed methane sea, but still mappable using vectoring software. This is the map he created, with longitude and latitude lines. More »

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NASA's Probe Will Buzz Titan Landing Site

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 »

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Failed Mission to Suck Up Moon Goo Results in Gorgeous Photos

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 »

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Space Probe Will Have Near-Collision With Saturn Moon

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 »

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Saturn Blocks Out The Sunlight

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]

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Is There Life On Saturn's Moon?

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 »

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Saturn: Hot Or Not?

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.

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Flying Saucers Are Orbiting Saturn Right Now

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.