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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Saturn from above (2006)
Ever since I first read about the plans for Cassini's tour of the Saturn system I've been looking forward to the current phase of the mission.
Breaking a tie on the Cassini science teams
This week's Cassini Project Update was particularly interesting, because it contained a story about how a difficult decision was made regarding the prioritizing of different science teams' desires for an upcoming Titan flyby.
Cassini VIMS and RADAR: a cryovolcano on Titan?
Yesterday, the VIMS team released several images from Cassini's
New names for Enceladus' features
The IAU has just approved new names for 35 craters, dorsa, fossae, and sulci on the surface of Enceladus, based upon Cassini's high-resolution mapping of the little moon. What are dorsa, fossae, and sulci, you might ask?
Cassini's view from the backside of Saturn
Over time, Cassini's orbit apoapsis—the point on the orbit that is farthest from Saturn—has been shifting slowly toward Saturn's night side. Lately, this point of view has resulted in some truly lovely photos of the planet.
They released the entire Cassini RADAR swath across Xanadu!
Following immediately on the heels of the release of the
Cassini's T7 RADAR view of southern Titan; northern swath coming soon
Cassini's T7 flyby of Titan occurred on September 7, 2005. They've now released the full swath of RADAR image data to the Planetary Data System; here it is for your enjoyment.
The official publication on the second Titan RADAR swath is out
Today Nature published an article titled
Cassini RADAR: Another Flyby, Another Completely Different View of Titan
OK, I finally got a story written about the latest and greatest of the Cassini RADAR data based upon a conversation I had with with Ralph Lorenz late last week.
Cassini RADAR images of the surface of Titan
Since the last Titan flyby on April 30, the Cassini RADAR team has been releasing quite a large number of pieces of the swath to the Web.
OPAG, Day 1: Hot-air ballooning on Titan
The next presentation at OPAG was given by Ralph Lorenz and Tom Spilker on a Titan Montgolfiere Mission Study. What's a Montgolfiere, you ask?
Too much outer planets news for me to read (much less report on)
Before I get to my notes from OPAG I want to minimally acknowledge today's news, which I'll have to get to in more detail later.
LPSC: Wednesday afternoon: Cassini at Enceladus
So after those two rover talks I skipped over to the other large room to listen to what the Cassini science teams had to say about Enceladus.
LPSC: Thursday: The Moons of Jupiter and the future of Outer Planet Exploration
I said earlier I was going to cover the poster sessions next, and there are some cool things that I want to write about, but I thought I'd better get to something a bit more topical a bit sooner: Europa and the other Galilean satellites, and when (if!?) we'll be exploring them again.
LPSC, Wednesday morning: Titan
This morning at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference began with Titan, and then later in the morning I had to choose between skipping Titan and going over to rover sessions, or staying with Titan. I elected to stay with Titan.
The hubbub about Enceladus
I just posted a very brief story about all of the press releases that have been whizzing around today about the possibility of liquid water on Enceladus.
Cassini is wrapping up another Titan flyby
This one is
Many, many views of Saturn's moons
Another thing I've been trying to catch up on is the daily imaging activities of Cassini, but that, too, has been tough because Cassini has been taking so dang many pictures!
The Orbital Dance of Epimetheus and Janus
Saturn is surrounded by a crowded family of rings and moons, and two of those moons -- Epimetheus and Janus -- orbit Saturn so close together that it seems as though their different orbital speeds should make them crash into each other.
Cassini, Day By Day
I've just resurrected a feature on the site that has been lost since our redesign: the