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Cassini spacecraft

Titan's interior: Too cold to form layers

Fri, 03/12/2010 - 15:57 by Pankaj Damin

Pasadena, Calif. -- NASA says data from its Cassini spacecraft suggests Saturn's moon Titan's interior has been too cold and sluggish to split into layers of ice and rock.

Space agency scientists said the subtle gravitational tugs they measured during Cassini's recent fly-bys of Titan shows the moon evolved in a different fashion from inner planets such as Earth, or icy moons such as Jupiter's Ganymede, whose interiors have split into distinctive layers.

"These results are fundamental to understanding the history of moons of the outer solar system," said Cassini Project Scientist Bob Pappalardo at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We can now better understand Titan's place among the range of icy satellites in our solar system."

Cassini makes another Enceladus flyby

Wed, 11/04/2009 - 21:14 by Inderjit Singh

Pasadena -- NASA says its Cassini spacecraft has successfully completed another flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus and is sending data from the event back to Earth.

Astronomers said Cassini has approached Enceladus more closely, but Monday's passage took the spacecraft on its deepest plunge yet through the heart of the plume being emitted from the moon's south polar region.

At its closest point Monday, Cassini flew about 60 miles above the surface of Enceladus, officials said.

Cassini finds new Saturn ring details

Tue, 09/22/2009 - 00:46 by surajdogra

Pasadena, Calif. -- NASA scientists say they are surprised at the extent of ruffles and dust clouds discovered in the rings of Saturn by the Cassini spacecraft.

Researchers, who once thought the rings were nearly completely flat, say Cassini's newest images reveal the heights of some recently discovered bumps in the rings are as high as the Rocky Mountains.

"It's like putting on 3-D glasses and seeing the third dimension for the first time," said Bob Pappalardo, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "This is among the most important events Cassini has shown us."

Saturn moon may have underground ocean

Thu, 06/25/2009 - 02:57 by Salinder Kumar

Pasadena, Calif. -- Scientists working on the U.S. space agency's Cassini spacecraft's mission say Saturn's moon Enceladus might have an underground ocean.

The researchers said they have, for the first time, detected sodium salts in Saturn's outermost ring. That finding, they said, suggests Enceladus, which primarily replenishes the ring with material from discharging jets, could harbor a reservoir of liquid water -- perhaps an ocean -- beneath its surface.

Cassini obtains new images of Titan

Wed, 03/25/2009 - 00:22 by Shruti Sharma

Pasadena, Calif. -- The U.S. space agency's Cassini spacecraft has produced new movies and images of Saturn's moon Titan, providing new glimpses of its Earth-like landscapes.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the new flyover topographic maps were made from stereo pairs of radar images by Cassini radar team member Randy Kirk of the Astrogeology Science Center at the U.S.

Geological Survey. NASA said Kirk used some of the 20 or so areas where two
or more overlapping radar measurements were obtained during 19 Titan flybys. The stereo overlaps cover close to 2 percent of Titan's surface.

Cassini switches to backup thrusters

Fri, 03/13/2009 - 08:11 by Shruti Sharma

Pasadena, Calif. -- U.S. space agency scientists say the Cassini spacecraft has successfully switched to a backup set of propulsion thrusters as it orbits Saturn.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the late Wednesday swap was performed because of degradation in the performance of the primary thrusters, which had been in use since Cassini's launch in 1997.

The space agency said the switch marked only the second time in Cassini's 11 years of flight that its engineering teams have gone to a backup system.

"The thrusters are used for making small corrections to the spacecraft's course, for some attitude control functions, and for making angular momentum adjustments in the reaction wheels, which also are used for attitude control," NASA said, noting nearly all Cassini engineering subsystems have redundant backup capabilities.