Tag: Cassini
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Cassini contacts Earth after flying inside Saturn’s rings
This unprocessed image shows features in Saturn’s atmosphere from closer than ever before. The view of Saturn’s pool hurricane was captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft during its first “Grand Finale” dive past the planet on April 26, 2017. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute Ground controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed Thursday the Cassini spacecraft survived…
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Cassini orbiter survives first dive inside Saturn’s rings: 21 to go, and then the end
This unprocessed image of Saturn’s atmosphere was captured by the Cassini probe during its dive inside the planet’s rings. (NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute Image) NASA’s Cassini orbiter zoomed inside Saturn’s rings overnight for the first time in its 20-year-long flight – and lived to tell about it. Signals received by the Deep Space Network’s…
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Cassini sails by Saturn’s moon Titan for last time
Cassini flew by Saturn’s moon Titan on Saturday for the mission’s final close encounter with the Earth-like moon. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft sped by the moon Titan on Saturday, using the hazy world’s gravity to slingshot the probe on a trailblazing trajectory to explore the region between Saturn’s hydrogen-helium atmosphere and the planet’s famous rings for…
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The Grand Finale: Cassini enters final mission
Nearly 20 years after launch and almost 13 years at the majestic ringed planet, the Cassini spacecraft is about to enter the final phase of its historic mission. The Grand Finale of Cassini’s mission began Sunday morning, setting up a series of close-proximity ops to the planet as Cassini dives between the innermost edge of…
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Saturn’s disk-shaped moon Atlas spotted by Cassini
This unprocessed image of Saturn’s moon Atlas was taken on April 12, 2017, by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute One of Saturn’s peculiar moons has received an up-close look from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which sent back the best-ever pictures of Atlas, an object shaped like a flying saucer orbiting just outside the planet’s…
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New discoveries raise prospects for life on moons of Jupiter and Saturn
This diagram of Saturn’s moon Enceladus shows its interior structure, with an icy shell and a subsurface ocean of liquid water over a rocky core. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Scientists announced Thursday that measurements from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft detected hydrogen gas, a key energy source for microbial life, in a plume gushing from a vast liquid water…
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Enceladus’ plumes suggest that Saturn moon’s ocean could support microbial life
This composite image shows how plumes of water emanate from fissures in the surface ice of Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons. (NASA / JPL Illustration) Scientists have detected molecules of hydrogen in plumes of watery material erupting from cracks in the ice of Enceladus, a moon of Saturn – and that suggests an ocean beneath…
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Cassini glimpses saucer-shaped moon plowing through Saturn’s rings
This raw, unprocessed image of Saturn’s moon Pan was taken on March 7, 2017, by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute Saturn’s moon Pan, embedded in a gap in Saturn’s icy rings, has drawn comparisons to a walnut or ravioli in new images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. In the final months of a 13-year…
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Perils and discoveries lie ahead for long-lived Saturn orbiter
This view shows Saturn’s northern hemisphere in 2016, as that part of the planet nears its northern hemisphere summer solstice in May 2017. Saturn’s year is nearly 30 Earth years long, and during its long time there, Cassini has observed winter and spring in the north, and summer and fall in the south. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space…
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It’s a UFO! It’s a walnut? No … It’s Pan, one of Saturn’s weirdest-looking moons
A picture taken by the high-resolution camera on the Cassini orbiter shows Pan’s weird-looking equatorial ridge. (NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI) Astronomers have long known that Pan, one of the “shepherd moons” in Saturn’s rings, had a weird shape. But it took this week’s high-resolution images from the Cassini orbiter to show them just how…