Saturn Archives

January 29, 2025January 29, 2025 by Mark Thompson

How Can Titan Maintain its Atmosphere?

Saturn’s moon Titan is perhaps one of the most fascinating moons in the Solar System. It’s the second largest of all the moons in our planetary neighbourhood and is the only one with a significant atmosphere. It’s composed of 95% nitrogen and 5% methane and is 1.5 times as dense as the Earth’s atmosphere. The methane in the atmosphere of Titan is what puzzles scientists. It should have all be broken up within 30 million years causing the atmosphere to freeze but it hasn’t! There must be an internal process replenishing it, but what is it?

January 26, 2025January 26, 2025 by Mark Thompson

Researchers Practice Searching for Life on Enceladus, in the Arctic Ocean

When searching for alien life, it’s not unusual to use Earth as a test bed for theories and even practice runs. Perhaps one of the most tantalising places in the Solar System to look for life is Saturn’s moon Enceladus. It has a liquid water interior and it is here that life may just be possible. A team of researchers want to test techniques for searching for life on Enceledaus by exploring the oceans of Earth. They have collected water and ice samples and hope to find chemicals like methane and hydrogen.

July 14, 2023July 14, 2023 by Brian Koberlein

We've Got to Go Back to Enceladus. Here's a Mission That Could Get the Science

Four key objectives of the proposed AXE mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In our search for life on other worlds, the one we’ve most explored is Mars. But while Mars has the makings for possible life, it isn’t the best candidate in our solar system. Much better are the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn, which we know have liquid water. And of those, perhaps the best candidate is Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

April 12, 2023April 12, 2023 by Laurence Tognetti

Saturn’s Rings Warm Up its Atmosphere

Composite image of hydrogen emissions observed on Saturn gathered between 1980 and 2017 by Voyager 1, Cassini, and Hubble. A near-ultraviolet image taken by Hubble in 2017 being used to calibrate the almost 40 years of data. The amount of reflected ultraviolet (UV) sunlight is measured in brightness, with the rings reflecting the least amount UV sunlight. The dark spot at the pole is Saturn's spin axis. (Credit: NASA, ESA, Lotfi Ben-Jaffel (IAP & LPL))

Saturn’s rings are one of the most well-known features throughout astronomy. While much is known about them, they still make headlines from time to time. This includes a recent study involving an international team of researchers that could help paint a clearer picture of the interaction between the gas giant and the massive ring system that encircles it.

March 20, 2023March 20, 2023 by Laurence Tognetti

The Favorite Solar System Moons of Planetary Geologists; An In-Depth Discussion

The Galilean moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The moons of our Solar System have garnered quite a lot of attention in the last few years, especially pertaining to astrobiology and the search for life beyond Earth. From the Galilean moons of Jupiter to the geysers of Enceladus to the methane lakes on Titan, these small worlds continue to humble us with both their awe and mystery. But do the very same scientists who study these mysterious and intriguing worlds have their own favorite moons? As it turns out, seven such planetary geologists were kind enough to share their favorite Solar System moons with Universe Today!

October 30, 2022October 30, 2022 by Laurence Tognetti

Will Enceladus finally answer, ‘Are we alone?’

We recently examined how and why the planet Mars could answer the longstanding question: Are we alone? There is evidence to suggest that it was once a much warmer and wetter world thanks to countless spacecraft, landers, and rovers having explored—and currently exploring—its atmosphere, surface, and interior. Here, we will examine another one of Saturn’s 83 moons, an icy world that spews geysers of water ice from giant fissures near its south pole, which is strong evidence for an interior ocean, and possibly life. Here, we will examine Enceladus.

September 30, 2022October 1, 2022 by Laurence Tognetti

Will Titan finally answer, ‘Are we alone?’

We recently examined how and why Jupiter’s moon, Europa, could answer the longstanding question: Are we alone? While this small icy world gives plenty of reasons to believe why we could—and should—find life within its watery depths, it turns out our solar system is home to a myriad of places where we might find life. Much like how the Voyager missions gave us the first hints of an interior ocean swirling beneath Europa’s outer icy shell, it was only fitting that Voyager 1 also gave us the first hints of the potential for life on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, as well.

January 20, 2022January 20, 2022 by Evan Gough

Even Tiny Mimas Seems to Have an Internal Ocean of Liquid Water

Mimas, as imaged by NASA's Cassini spacecraft and processed by @kevinmgill

Data from the Cassini mission keeps fuelling discoveries. The latest discovery is that Saturn’s tiny moon Mimas may have an internal ocean. If it does, the moon joins a growing list of natural satellites in our Solar System that may harbour liquid water under their surfaces.

December 14, 2021December 14, 2021 by Andy Tomaswick

A Spacecraft Orbiting the Moon Just Captured an Image of Saturn

Cameras can be finicky – especially ones primarily used for astronomy. When used for a purpose other than their intended one, sometimes they result in horribly muddled or blurry images. However, sometimes an image works out just right and provides a whole new perspective on a familiar scene. That’s what happened recently when the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) turned one of its cameras toward one of astronomy’s favorite places – Saturn.

November 23, 2021November 23, 2021 by Evan Gough

Here are Hubble’s 2021 Photos of the Outer Solar System

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has completed its annual grand tour of the outer Solar System for 2021. This is the realm of the giant planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune — extending as far as 30 times the distance between Earth and the Sun. Unlike the rocky terrestrial planets like Earth and Mars that huddle close to the Sun’s warmth, these far-flung worlds are mostly composed of chilly gaseous soups of hydrogen, helium, ammonia, and methane around a packed, intensely hot, compact core. Note: The planets are not shown to scale in this image. Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and the OPAL team

If we had to rely solely on spacecraft to learn about the outer planets, we wouldn’t be making great progress. It takes a massive effort to get a spacecraft to the outer Solar System. But thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, we can keep tabs on the gas giants without leaving Earth’s orbit.