Cassini also studied Saturn’s auroras, atmospheric composition, the swelling of its outer atmosphere (the thermosphere) and the planet’s rate of rotation (a Saturn day is about 10.5 Earth hours). During NASA's Cassini mission's final distant encounter with Saturn's giant moon Titan, the spacecraft captured the enigmatic moon's north polar landscape of lakes and seas, which are filled with liquid methane and ethane. Though decades had passed since Voyager first spotted it, the hexagon was still there, racing around Saturn’s north pole. Over time, as Saturn’s north entered spring, Cassini imaged the hexagon in visible wavelengths of light, revealing a stunningly symmetric shape 20,000 miles (30,000 kilometers) across with winds at around 200 miles per hour (322 kilometers per hour). Video Details.

“But maybe that’s just in our lifetime.” Many generations from now, maybe the unseen mechanism that produces the storms will flip, and these giant tempests will form in the south. “Why isn’t it five-sided? The first map showing the global geology of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, has been completed and fully reveals a dynamic world of dunes, lakes, plains, craters and other terrains. On Earth, mountain ranges and other features of the planet’s surface cause jet streams to bend and kink, but Saturn has no such obstacles jutting into its atmosphere, so the jet stream just keeps flowing, orderly and hexagonal. Bill Dunford. Saturn’s most famous and most visible jet stream, however, is far different from those of Earth. In 2011, Cassini observed flashes in the storm that scientists determined were produced by lightning in the range of the most powerful lightning on Earth. The following week was dedicated to PSG #75, the Cassini Project Science Group meeting at JPL. Planetary scientists have learned something significant: More than a quarter of the exoplanets they studied could be ocean worlds. Not one, but two, full moons; Mars at opposition; and finding the Andromeda galaxy.

New research from NASA's Cassini spacecraft's up-close Grand Finale orbits shows a surprisingly powerful and dynamic interaction of plasma waves moving from Saturn to its rings and its moon Enceladus, This site is maintained by the Planetary Science Communications team at. The length of a day on Saturn: 10 hours, 33 minutes and 38 seconds. › download, HD Podcast: 56 MB | 1280 x 720

But over more than a decade orbiting the gas giant, Cassini studied the composition and temperature of Saturn’s upper atmosphere as the seasons changed there.

And the storm that produced the lightning was a doozy.

Hence the whiteness of the storm. “Who knows,” Edgington said. As different as Saturn is from Earth, the two planets have some similarities, one of which is the presence of jet streams.

Viewing options: “We haven’t yet dropped any probes into Saturn.”. The planet also boasts a collection of exotic, and still mysterious, moons. Using data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, scientists found Titan drifting away from Saturn a hundred times faster than previously understood. Likewise, what we call Saturn’s 30-year storm is, for Saturn, an annual occurance. What drives it?”, Saturn’s north and south poles are also each beautifully (and violently) decorated by a colossal swirling storm.

A portrait looking down on Saturn and its rings. “They’re hurricane-like, though.”.

“The remarkable thing about this storm is that it arrived 10 years earlier, placing Cassini at the right moment in time to observe this fascinating weather feature,”Edgington said. Orbit and Rotation. “You can see the eye walls.”, Cassini got an up-close look at the north polar storm and scientists found that the storm’s eye was about 50 times wider than an Earth hurricane’s eye. But its core is thought to be only a bit larger than Earth, leaving the vast bulk of Saturn’s volume filled by a churning cauldron of gas and compressed metallic hydrogen, mixed with helium and other trace molecules, so deep, dense and hot that the crushing depths of Earth’s deepest ocean trenches seem a comparatively tame environment. The hexagonal jet stream around Saturn’s north pole was first observed by the Voyager mission in the early 1980s. Saturn is nearly 10 times farther from the sun than Earth and takes far longer to orbit the sun – about 29 Earth years. It's Likely, NASA Scientists Find, Saturn's Moon Titan Drifting Away Faster Than Previously Thought, Data From NASA's Cassini May Explain Saturn's Atmospheric Mystery, 10 Ways to Celebrate Pi Day with NASA on March 14, The First Global Geologic Map of Titan Completed, New Organic Compounds Found in Enceladus Ice Grains, NASA's Cassini Reveals New Sculpting in Saturn Rings, 10 Things: Unsolved Mysteries of Saturn's Moons, Cassini Finds Saturn's Rings Coat Tiny Moons, Scientists Finally Know What Time It Is on Saturn, NASA's Cassini Data Show Saturn's Rings Relatively New, NASA Research Reveals Saturn is Losing Its Rings at "Worst-Case-Scenario" Rate, Groundbreaking Science Emerges from Ultra-Close Orbits of Saturn, Dust Storms on Titan Spotted for the First Time, Cassini's Final View of Titan's Northern Lakes and Seas, And the Emmy goes to: Cassini's Grand Finale, Saturn's Famous Hexagon May Tower Above the Clouds, Cassini Significant Events 8/1/18 - 8/28/18, Saturn's Famous Hexagon May Tower Above the Clouds (ESA Release), Cassini Significant Events 6/27/18 - 7/31/18, NASA's Cassini Coverage Lands an Emmy Nomination, Listen: Sound of Electromagnetic Energy Moving Between Saturn, Enceladus.

More ›. Orbit and Rotation.

Social Media Lead: This spectacular, vertigo inducing, false-color image from NASA's Cassini mission highlights the storms at Saturn's north pole.

In its final hours, NASA's Cassini spacecraft returned these last looks at Saturn, its rings and moons, as it prepared to end its nearly 20-year voyage in space. But questions still remain, Edgington said. Saturn’s so-called 30-year storms appear seasonally, like Earth’s hurricanes and typhoons but on a longer timescale. New measurements of the mass of Saturn's rings reveal their age — and something they have in common with dinosaurs. › download, Farewell to Saturn: Highlights from the End of NASA's Cassini Mission. Standard Podcast: 35 MB | 640 x 360 Why isn’t there another one in the south? An enhanced-color, backlit view of Saturn.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has detected dust storms on Saturn's largest moon, making Titan the third Solar System body where such storms have been observed. An enhanced-color, backlit view of Saturn. The Cassini mission revealed a surprising feature emerging at Saturn's northern pole as it nears summertime: a warming, high-altitude vortex with a hexagonal shape, akin to the famous hexagon seen deeper down in Saturn's clouds.

“Another interesting thing is that all these storms have been seen from either at the equator or in the northern hemisphere,” Edgington said. Get the latest updates on NASA missions, watch NASA TV live, and learn about our quest to reveal the unknown and benefit all humankind. Cassini's Grand Finale orbits pay off: Final dives tell the story of the previously unexplored region between Saturn and its rings. Birthed in December 2010, the storm was as vast as any ever observed at the ringed planet.

Overview: Before Cassini, scientists viewed Saturn’s unique features only from Earth and from a few spacecraft flybys. Site Editors: Tony Greicius, Randal Jackson, Naomi Hartono. Saturn’s 30-year storm (or annual storm for Saturn), appeared 10 Earth years earlier than usual, allowing Cassini to study the phenomenon up close during its mission. What are some skywatching highlights in October 2020? Dust and ice from Saturn's vast rings accretes onto the moons embedded within and near the rings. Cassini mission data provides strong evidence that the northern hemisphere of the moon has been resurfaced with ice from its interior.

You can see seven of its moons and its inner rings. From deep below the soil at Earth’s polar regions to Pluto’s frozen heart, ice exists all over the solar system...and beyond. See the Moon posing with various planets throughout the month, plus catch the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower. Saturn may be known for its rings, but the planet itself offers irresistible and inexhaustible subjects for study. Lightning is lightning, however, no matter what planet it’s on.

Saturn’s axis of rotation is tilted like Earth’s, and so it too has seasons, but the longer year produces seasons that last more than seven Earth years each. Science Writer: By the time Cassini dove into Saturn at the end of its mission, it had observed the planet for less than half of a Saturn year. Two important meetings of scientists took center stage for the Cassini team this month. COSPAR, the Committee on Space Research, came to Pasadena on July 15. NASA.gov brings you the latest images, videos and news from America's space agency. “With Cassini, we saw that it was a long-lived phenomenon,” Edgington said. Infrared Eyes on Enceladus: Hints of Fresh Ice in Northern Hemisphere, Are Ocean Planets Common?

Its rings reflect far more light onto Saturn’s night side than a full moon does at Earth. National Aeronautics and Space Administration; NASA Official: NASA Office of Communications

But it wasn’t until 2009 that Cassini’s cameras captured images of Saturnian lightning for the first time, and Cassini scientists even assembled a short video of it, the first video of lightning discharging on a planet other than Earth.

Cassini’s instruments ‘heard’ lightning ever since entering Saturn orbit in 2004, in the form of radio waves.

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