Saturn – Page 3 – My WordPress Site

The rings of Saturn and Uranus as imaged by JWST NIRCam. These images provide an empirical example in which the flux of the ring system is comparable to, or even exceeds, that of the planet when observed with NIRCam. The image of Saturn was created using data from JWST GTO 1247.a The image of Uranus was created using data from JWST DD 2739.b -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Proxima Centauri, Saturn, tau Ceti, Uranus

On the Detection Of Exorings in Reflected Light With JWST NIRCam

by Keith CowingSeptember 19, 2025September 19, 2025

An artist’s impression of plumes erupting onto the surface of Enceladus. Its fellow moon Titan is seen in the sky, and the distant Sun beyond. Credit ESA/Science Office. Larger image

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Enceladus, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Saturn

Study Questions Oceanic Origin Of Organics In Enceladus’s Plumes

by Keith CowingSeptember 9, 2025September 9, 2025

Video: NOAA Hurricane Hunters

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Jupiter, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Saturn, Video, Audio, Webcasts, Podcasts, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Video: A Preview Of Future Gas Giant Exploration

by Keith CowingAugust 18, 2025August 18, 2025

Average completeness (purple), number of planets before correction (red) and number of planets after correction (green) inside each bin (blue lines). Blue and orange circles represent cold Jupiters with and without inner super-Earth companions respectively. The contours on the left panel correspond to detection completeness of stars from the sample hosting at least one super-Earth. On the right panel, the contours correspond to detection completeness of stars that do not host super-Earths. Note that dividing the red number by the purple number gives an approximation of the green number. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Jupiter, Saturn

Saturns, But Not Super-Jupiters, Occur More Frequently In The Presence Of Inner Super-Earths

by Keith CowingJune 27, 2025June 27, 2025

Binary collision-induced H2–He absorption coefficient, α, normalized by the hydrogen and helium gas densities, as function of frequency in the fundamental band, at 296 K. The parato-ortho distribution, is representative of equilibrium H2, just as in Fig. 2. Our model (“this work”), is compared with the model of Abel et al.17 for T = 300K, and with the laboratory measurements of Vitali et al. 18 and Brodbeck et al.19 , both of which were made near 296 K. We note that neither our model nor that of Abel et al. considered the discrete, intercollisional interference dips present in the laboratory spectra. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Ice Giant, Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus

Improved H2-He and H2-H2 Collision-Induced Absorption Models and Application to Outer-Planet Atmospheres

by Keith CowingJune 15, 2025June 13, 2025

Wolf 359 images from NIRCam (blue) and MIRI (red) before and after PSF subtraction. PSF subtraction was performed in order to improve the sensitivity to finding faint astrophysical sources near the star. The white circle represents an angular separation of 15 AU for the Wolf 359 system. The dark spots in the background of the PSF subtracted frames are due to positive sources in the reference star frames; this issue is expected to be mitigated in future analysis when additional reference stars are available. In the MIRI F2100W frames, an image artifact is present approximately 75 pixels above the center of the star. Future proper motion followup observations are needed to identify if uncataloged point sources are co-moving companions. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Jupiter, Saturn

JWST MIRI Imaging Can Directly Detect Exoplanets Of The Same Temperature, Mass, Age, And Orbital Separation As Saturn And Jupiter

by Keith CowingMay 23, 2025May 23, 2025

These infrared-light images of Titan were taken by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope on 11 July 2023. They show methane clouds appearing at different altitudes in Titan’s northern hemisphere. On the left side is a representative-colour image (1.4 microns is coloured blue, 1.5 microns is green, and 2.0 microns is red: filters F140M, F150W, and F200W, respectively). In the middle is a single-wavelength image taken by Webb at 2.12 microns. This wavelength is predominantly emitted from Titan’s lower troposphere. The rightmost image shows emission at 1.64 microns, which favours higher altitudes, in Titan’s upper troposphere and stratosphere (an atmospheric layer above the troposphere). Larger image

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Saturn, Titan

Webb Telescope Studies The Weather On Titan – A Prime Astrobiology Target

by Keith CowingMay 14, 2025May 14, 2025

Water line area maps expressed in units of µmˆ% of continuum. The four observation time windows are July 2011 at 67.09 µm, February 2012 at 66.44 and 67.09 µm, July-August 2012 at 66.44 and 67.09 µm, and January-February 2013 at 66.44 and 67.09 µm. Saturn’s 1-bar level is represented by the black ellipse, with the north pole facing upwards. A selection of iso-latitudes are plotted with grey lines. The rotation axis corresponds to the thin dashed black line. The beam spatial extent is illustrated by the circle in a dashed blue line. The black dots correspond to the central position of the spatial pixels. The position and extension of the beacon (see Table 3) at mid-observation time is represented with the thick dashed black lines. A cubic interpolation was applied to the data. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Enceladus, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Saturn

Temporal Evolution Of Water Abundance In Saturn’s Hot Vortex Of 2011-2013

by Keith CowingMay 8, 2025May 8, 2025

This artist's concept shows Orbilander in its landed configuration on Saturn's moon Enceladus. Image: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Enceladus, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Missions & Hardware, Reports, Roadmaps, & Plans, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Saturn, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Enceladus Orbilander Flagship Mission

by Keith CowingApril 28, 2025April 28, 2025

This artist's concept of a lake at the north pole of Saturn's moon Titan illustrates raised rims and rampart-like features as seen by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. NASA/JPL-Caltech

Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Saturn, Titan, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Titan Could Harbor Life, But Only A Tiny Amount, Study Finds

by Keith CowingApril 8, 2025April 8, 2025