Cassini’s Grand Finale – 5 Years on

On the 15th of September 2017 the completing the last of it's 'Grand Finale' maneuvers the space craft Cassini entered Saturn's atmosphere and burned up. This ended a mission that began with it's launch in 1997 with the exploration mission lasting 13 years from 2004 until it's destruction in September 2017 when the last images …

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Jupiter and Saturn – Autumn planets

On Tueday Jupiter was at opposition, this means that the Sun, Earth and Jupiter are all in a line and it's the closest that Jupiter gets to us this year. It also happened to be the closest Jupiter will be for a long time, so I was keen to get out and see what images …

The ‘Great’ Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn | NASA

Saturn, top, and Jupiter, below, are seen after sunset from Shenandoah National Park, Sunday, Dec. 13, 2020, in Luray, Virginia. The two planets are drawing closer to each other in the sky as they head towards a “great conjunction” on December 21, where the two giant planets will appear a tenth of a degree apart.Credits: …

Stuck on the Rings

Tethys appears to be stuck to Saturn's A and F rings from this perspective.(No ownership claimed on image) Source: Stuck on the Rings

Solar System Exploration – Saturn

Moving away from Jupiter, our next visitor is Saturn. Saturn is twice the distance from the sun than Jupiter is, so there is a long, cold gap between the two worlds. This isn't surprising as the gravitational pull of these two planets would either capture or knock away any other object of any substantial mass. …

Cassini – The End of an Era of Exploration

Today is the end of era and a project that has lasted around 30 years, given us a spectacular insight into one of the most beautiful objects in the solar system. Today is when the Cassini mission finally ends by plummeting into Saturn's atmosphere and will be destroyed by re-entry and the intense pressure of …

NASA Finds Moon of Saturn Has Chemical That Could Form ‘Membranes’

NASA scientists have definitively detected the chemical acrylonitrile in the atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan, a place that has long intrigued scientists investigating the chemical precursors of life. On Earth, acrylonitrile, also known as vinyl cyanide, is useful in the manufacture of plastics. Under the harsh conditions of Saturn’s largest moon, this chemical is thought …

13 Years of Cassini

We've 13 amazing years of Cassini exploring Saturn, now the mission is coming to a close - what did we find out? https://youtu.be/xrGAQCq9BMU via NASA — Solar System: Things to Know This Week No ownership claimed on images or materials - Credit NASA Simon 🙂

Countdown to Cassini’s Grand Finale

Cassini is now on it's way towards it's grand and ultimately destructive finale! Using Saturn's largest Moon titan to fling it into a polar orbit between Saturn's ring and it's outer atmosphere it will complete 22 weekly obits of Saturn before plunging into Saturn's atmosphere on September 15th via Countdown to Cassini's Grand Finale / …

Sliver of Saturn

Although only a sliver of Saturn's sunlit face is visible in this view, the mighty gas giant planet still dominates the view. From this vantage point just beneath the ring plane, the dense B ring becomes dark and essentially opaque, letting almost no light pass through. But some light reflected by the planet passes through …

NASA – Solar System: Things to Know This Week

I used to post these on a regular basis, but I've been leaving them lately. But the big news for this week is really about the last stages of Cassini's Saturn mission. The last maneuvers will be taking place soon, bringing Cassini between the planet's outer atmosphere and it's inner rings for a number of orbits …

ESA – Week in Images

I'm trying to keep up with ESA's images, as my regular bloggies would know I used to post this every week but I'm slacking nowadays. This weeks images show cyclone Debbie, Supernova remnant SNR 0509-68.7 and ESA's ExoMars Rover. Click on the link for the full article. via Week In Images / Highlights / ESA No …