I remember vividly my first astronomy class in university. Winter 2004, only months before the Cassini spacecraft was set to arrive at Saturn after a seven year journey. On several occasions in that class we talked about what we might see when Cassini reached it’s destination. The first dedicated mission to the jewel of the solar system, originally conceived right after the voyager flyby in 1982, would give us a chance to study more than just a planet, but an entire system of interaction between a planet and it’s moons. Beyond that, it included the Huygens probe, to land at...
Even after a decade of interloping among the Saturnian system, the Cassini spacecraft is still doing great science. It helps that there are lots of places to visit, since Saturn has 62 moons and the largest ring system of the gas giants. Arguably the best science has come from Saturn’s largest moon Titan, second largest moon in the solar system (behind Ganymede) and the only moon known to have an atmosphere. Since Cassini has been in orbit around Saturn and it’s system of moons, it’s been revealed that over 1.6 million square kilometers of Titan’s surface are covered in liquid...
When we see the Earth’s only Moon up in the sky, we often think about how small it is. It’s only about 1/4 the diameter of the Earth, and at a distance of 384,000 Km, it looks small in the sky. But often size is entirely a matter of perspective. What we compare something to, that’s what determines it’s size. When the Moon is high in the sky we easily compare it to the size of the window we are looking through, or to a nearby tree, or our outstretched hand. All of this can make the Moon seem pretty tiny....
You’ve seen the planets, now let’s look at some of the best moons to visit in the solar system, ala the romanticized art deco style! Ceres is like a gas station for that long trip to Jupiter, treated as an icy rock that is not the best tourist destination. Enceladus is a lot like the spacefarer’s version of Yellowstone park, with the southern hemisphere geysers being the appeal. My two favourites are Titan and Europa. Titan’s colour scheme and view of Saturn are gorgeous, but the best part is the paddle boats in the hydrocarbon seas. The most interesting visit...
Titan is the most interesting body in the solar system from a weather standpoint. It has a thick and robust atmosphere, a liquid cycle of methane and other hydrocarbons, and it has seasonal variations in these patterns. It’s essentially a cold and oxygen-deficient version of Earth. Because the seasons on Titan take 7.5 years to pass, we have few opportunities to study them up close with the Cassini spacecraft. So as long as Cassini is operating, we are using our time wisely to see how Titan is changing. The first major change is a giant ice cloud that has formed...
With more than a decade of observations, the Cassini spacecraft has redefined our understanding of the ringed giant Saturn and its diverse moons. Continually working and returning new data, it has achieved significant scientific milestones, along with it’s partner probe Huygens, which dropped down through the thick clouds of mighty moon Titan’s atmosphere in early 2005. Along with a new scientific understanding comes views never-before-seen by human eyes, revealing the artful dance between the gas giant, its moons, and its incredible ring system. One of my favourite photos shows the incredibly beautiful symmetry of the rings. The rotational symmetry in...
Our Solar System is so much more than just the eight planets that inhabit it. One of the things I learned a bit later in my career as an astronomer (my teenage years; been doing this for awhile) is how unique and diverse the natural satellites are. Our own moon seems somewhat tame, and it’s easy to think the same of all moons. Many of them are boring quiescent rocks with little more scientific value than asteroids, but the largest hide deep and profound secrets that we are just starting to unlock. Four moons in our solar system are larger...
No, he isn’t a zombie. He’s a long dead scientific pioneer. He discovered Saturn’s moon of Titan and was the first to suggest that Saturn’s odd ‘blob’ shape could be explained by rings around the planet. He was a pioneer of optics and developed a telescope with two lenses, more powerful than Galileos. He also characterized the motion of an ideal mathematical pendulum (with a massless cord and a length longer than its swing), and invented the pendulum clock as a method of keeping time. He had a few other contributions to astronomy, including the observation of individual stars in...
About a year ago I had an idea for a music video. I wanted to take a concept in science and put it to music, making it funny, catchy, memorable, and educational. I wrote out the majority of the lyrics but left it alone for a few months, until I connected with the right friend. My good friend Bob Wegner is a very talented guitarist and audio engineer, and as we spoke about the idea he wanted to be the guy to record it. We spent an afternoon doing the vocals and guitars, and he cleaned it up and made...
Since the Huygens probe dropped down to the surface of Saturn’s largest moon Titan, astronomers have pondered the idea of life on the distant world. With a liquid cycle not unlike Earth’s water cycle in form, but consisting of frigid liquid hydrocarbons, could a new variation of life exist, not as we know it? Jonathan Lunine, director for Cornell’s Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, is an expert on Saturn’s Moons and is a scientist on the Cassini-Huygens mission, which originally discovered the Methane-Ethane lakes on Titan a decade ago. Given a grant to study non-aqueous life, he needed help....
