saturn

MOSCOW – Russia should build a new nuclear-powered spaceship for prospective manned missions to Mars and other planets, the nation's space chief said Thursday. Anatoly Perminov first proposed building the ship at a government meeting Wednesday but didn't explain its purpose. President Dmitry...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA's newest rocket successfully completed a brief test flight Wednesday, the first step in a back-to-the-moon program that could yet be shelved by the White House. The 327-foot Ares I-X rocket resembled a giant white pencil as it shot into the sky, delayed a day by poor...

NASA on Tuesday carted a sleek, towering rocket out to the launch pad to test the vehicle planned to replace the retiring space shuttles and return U.S. astronauts to the moon. The flight, scheduled for next week, comes as the Obama administration considers whether to continue the Ares 1 rocket...

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered an enormous ring around Saturn — by far the largest of the giant planet's many rings. The new belt lies at the far reaches of the Saturnian system, with an orbit tilted 27° from the main ring plane. The bulk of its material starts about 3.7 million...

A new analysis of Cassini observations of Jupiter shows that an "inverse energy cascade" mechanism could be supplying the energy that powers and maintains the intense jet streams that typically rip through Jupiter's atmosphere at the same speeds as much shorter-lived hurricanes and tornadoes do...

NASA scientists are marveling over the extent of ruffles and dust clouds revealed in the rings of Saturn during the planet's equinox last month. Scientists once thought the rings were almost flat, but new images reveal the heights of some newly discovered bumps in the rings are as high as the...

A team of international scientists led by Mirjam Langhans, from the German Aerospace Center Deutschen Zentrums für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), presented the first results of a global analysis of spatial patterns, occurrence, and origin of river channels on Titan at the European Planetary Science...

Stunning new views of Saturn from a NASA spacecraft have revealed odd formations in the planet's trademark rings, including ripples as tall as the Rocky Mountains. The new images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft show that Saturn's icy rings - once thought to be relatively thin - can be miles...

Great tropical storm on Saturn moon Titan Titan (bottom left) is the largest moon of Saturn. On the Saturn moon Titan, scientists in April 2008 a storm was observed in a place where he least expected, namely the tropical area. This is evident from a study published in the latest issue of...

Some of the comets that make their way to Earth's neighborhood from the frigid outer reaches of the solar system likely follow a different route than previously thought, new modeling suggests. The study's findings, detailed in the July 31 issue of the journal Science, are good news for our...

New models of planet formation indicate that, at specific times, the architecture of the solar system experienced dramatic upheaval. Many of the objects found today in the asteroid belt located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter may have formed in the outermost reaches of the solar...

Exclusive: LRO scientist recaps launch week Michael Wyatt, participating scientist on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission, offers a firsthand account of the days leading up to the launch of NASA's lunar-bound craft. He's at Cape Canaveral and will provide exclusive updates to...

MUMBAI (AFP) – Indian astrologers are predicting violence and turmoil across the world as a result of this week's total solar eclipse, which the superstitious and religious view as a sign of potential doom. But astronomers, scientists and secularists are trying to play down claims of evil...

Gas giant planets that migrated early in the history of the solar system could have violently knocked some of the asteroid belt's denizens into their current orbits, according to a new study that aims to solve a number of enduring space rock mysteries. The research, which uses a theory of the...

One suggested explanation for the contrasting results from the two studies is that deep caverns may exist where water evaporates slowly. Water vapor jets that spew from the surface of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus are not really geysers from an underground ocean as initially envisioned by...

The planet names are derived from Roman and Greek mythology, except for the name Earth which is Germanic and Old English in origin. The five planets easily visible with the unaided eye (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) have been observed for all human history as far as we can tell, and...

Saturn's Rings: As Saturn travels around the Sun, we see its majestic ring system from different angles. These images were taken with the Hubble Space Telescope from the year 1996 (bottom left) to 2000 (top right). Notice how thin the rings are! They are 300,000 km across, and only a kilometer...

Michael Wyatt, participating scientist on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission, offers a firsthand account of the days leading up to the launch of NASA's lunar-bound craft. He's at Cape Canaveral and will provide exclusive updates to Astronomy.com throughout the week. June 22...

I was just curious; thinking. I have read that there is evidence of other solar systems in this universe, out of these new solar systems found none resemble ours; in addition, none have included a planet similar to earth. It was said that our solar system is an "oddball". Is it possible that our...

New evidence of underground ocean on Titan monday Tuesday, April 7, 2009 Under the surface of Titan, the largest moon of planet Saturn ring, is under a geophysical of Stanford University may have an ocean of liquid hydrocarbons, a group of organic...