A photograph taken by Nasa’s Cassini spacecraft may show the birth of a new moon in Saturn’s rings.
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft and Deep Space Network have detected evidence that Saturn’s moon Enceladus harbours a large underground ocean, furthering speculation that the moon may be a home to extraterrestrial life.
When schoolchildren conjure up an image of Saturn, it is the rings that make it stand out, but Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune have also been observed to be surrounded by rings. New observations of a distant asteroid orbiting beyond Saturn, however, have shown that this too is surrounded by two fine, dense rings.
Astronomers believe that they detected liquid waves on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, the first time that such a discovery has been made on another world.
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has obtained new pictures of the liquid methane and ethane seas and lakes that reside near Titan’s north pole.