A pair of neat developments hit the wires today — one expanding on the previous discovery of new rings around the planet Uranus (originally published back in December via Hubble Telescope observations), both involving Saturn’s rings.
First up: Blue ring discovered around Uranus

Image Credit: Imke de Pater, Heidi Hammel, Seran Gibbard, Mark Showalter, Science
The outermost ring […]

Image Credit: Steven Hobbs (and NASA)
This week, NOVA, the acclaimed science documentary series on PBS pays tribute to the Cassini-Huygens mission. Voyage to the Mystery Moon chronicles the voyage undertaken by NASA and the European Space Agency to Saturn and Titan. From the program description:
A story of curiosity and imagination, this program highlights how […]

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Mimas briefly slipped in front of Tethys while the Cassini spacecraft looked on and captured the event in this series of images.
The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 11, 2006, at a distance of approximately 3.7 million kilometers (2.3 million miles) from Mimas […]

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Big news today from Cassini: observations returned from the spacecraft suggest the possibility of liquid water beneath the icy moon’s surface.
Last July, scientists discovered that Enceladus’ southern polar region displayed signs of an envioronment much warmer than had been anticipated on such a small satellite; Enceladus was thought to […]

This new image from Cassini highlights ghostly atmospheric detail near Titan’s North pole.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
This specially processed composite view reveals a tremendous amount of structure in the northern polar atmosphere of Titan. The hazes in Titan’s atmosphere are known to extend hundreds of kilometers above the surface.
Structure visible here could be […]

One good turn deserves another. I adore the consistent stream of imagery from the Saturnian system; these pictures offer us the ability to peer back in time, and to ponder what dynamic events have shaped these icy satellites as we view them today.
Continuing on the heels of the previous entry, the Cassini team has released […]

Continuing my ongoing admiration of Saturn’s icy satellites, here’s the latest from Cassini showing a pair of new looks at Enceladus.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
A false color look reveals subtle details on Enceladus that are not visible in natural color views.
The now-familiar bluish appearance (in false color views) of the southern “tiger stripe” […]