Scientists have solved a 40-year-old puzzle by identifying the origin of the intense radio waves in the Earth's upper atmosphere that control the dynamics of the Van Allen radiation belts — belts consisting of high-energy electrons that can damage satellites and spacecraft and pose a risk to astronauts performing activities outside their spacecraft. picked by AutumnLotus 6 months ago

Scientists analysing data gathered by the Cassini spacecraft have confirmed the presence of heavy negative ions in the upper regions of Titan’s atmosphere. These particles may act as organic building blocks for even more complicated molecules and their discovery was completely unexpected because of the chemical composition of the atmosphere (which lacks oxygen and mainly consists of nitrogen... read full post picked by AutumnLotus 9 months ago

Geologists have uncovered evidence of when Earth may have first supported an oxygen-rich atmosphere similar to the one we breathe today. The study suggests that upheavals in the earth’s crust initiated a kind of reverse-greenhouse effect 500 million years ago that cooled the world’s oceans, spawned giant plankton blooms, and sent a burst of oxygen into the atmosphere. picked by AutumnLotus 10 months ago

Oxygen is constantly leaking out of Earth’s atmosphere and into space. Now, ESA’s formation-flying quartet of satellites, Cluster, has discovered the physical mechanism that is driving the escape. It turns out that the Earth’s own magnetic field is accelerating the oxygen away. picked by AutumnLotus 4 days ago

Saturn is now at its best in our late-winter sky. It appears below and to the left of the conspicuous "sickle" or backwards question-mark pattern of stars marking the head and mane of the constellation of Leo, the Lion.

What we see with the naked eye is a bright yellowish-white "star" shining with a steady light. picked by AutumnLotus 7 months ago

Somewhere deep below Saturn’s cloud tops, the planet rotates at a constant speed. Determining this interior period of rotation has proven extremely complicated. Now, with new Cassini results, a team of European scientists have taken an important step forward. picked by AutumnLotus 9 months ago

Watching the stars set from the surface of the Earth may be a romantic pastime but when a spacecraft does it from orbit, it can reveal hidden details about a planet’s atmosphere. It works by watching stars from space, while they drop behind the atmosphere of a planet under investigation, before disappearing from view below the planet’s horizon. picked by AutumnLotus 10 months ago

Jupiter's volcanic moon Io is veiled by a thin atmosphere, but how much its volcanoes and chunks of frozen gas contribute to its atmosphere has puzzled scientists for decades. The New Horizons spacecraft recently documented the moon's glowing aurora, however, giving researchers a chance to solve the atmospheric mystery. picked by AutumnLotus 11 months ago

The scientists behind the Cassini orbiter have announced the discovery of Saturn's 60th moon, a little thing that showed up in time-lapse photography of the ringed planet. picked by AutumnLotus 1 year ago

A sniff test of water vapor spewing from Saturn's moon Enceladus shows it is gushing with organic molecules, increasing the possibility of life existing somewhere in the Saturn system. picked by AutumnLotus 5 months ago

Saturn: jewel of the solar system, taker of breaths, ringed beauty. Even veteran astronomers can't help but gasp when they see her through a small telescope.

Red Alert: Saturn's rings are vanishing.

Around the world, amateur astronomers have noticed the change; Saturn's wide open rings are rapidly narrowing into a thin line. picked by AutumnLotus 6 months ago

High resolution observations of Saturn's radio emissions have just been made public by NASA. Listen to NASA's Saturn radio emissions, then listen to the classic 1956 science fiction movie Forbidden Planet. The similarities are startling. picked by AutumnLotus 10 months ago

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered a new climate pattern called the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation. This new pattern explains, for the first time, changes in the water that are important in helping commercial fishermen understand fluctuations in the fish stock. picked by AutumnLotus 4 months ago

With some parts of Europe currently in the middle of a heat wave, it seems it's not only people who suffer from the soaring temperatures. picked by AutumnLotus 1 year ago

In the 1980s, NASA's Voyager spacecraft measured regular pulses of radio waves coming from Saturn every 10 hours and 39 minutes. That was close to the rough rotation rate scientists have obtained by tracking the motion of Saturn's clouds, suggesting the pulse period is tied to the planet's rotation rate. !!Sound and Video links!! picked by drnothing 10 months ago

An unusual electrical disturbance has been spotted in space, travelling unchanged through the ionised gas surrounding Earth. A European space mission called Cluster detected a "soliton" wave, a phenomenon similar to the self-contained solitons that can travel along optical fibres and channels of water on Earth. This is the first known soliton in space. picked by AutumnLotus 6 months ago

The latest mystery is the giant hexagon circling Saturn's north pole. Nothing like the hexagon has ever been seen at any other planet, with each of its sides nearly 7,500 miles (12,500 kilometers) across-big enough to fit nearly four Earths inside. picked by AutumnLotus 1 year ago

The formation of strange flying-saucer-shaped moons embedded in Saturn's rings have baffled scientists. New findings suggest they're born largely from clumps of icy particles in the rings themselves, an insight that could shed light on how Earth and other planets coalesced from the disk of matter that once surrounded our newborn sun. picked by AutumnLotus 9 months ago

Enceladus, the tiny satellite of Saturn, is colder than ice, but data gathered by the Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn and Titan has detected a hot spot that could mean there is life in the old moon after all. In fact, for researchers of the outer planets, Enceladus is so intellectually hot, it's smokin'. picked by AutumnLotus 9 months ago

A massive whirling vortex recently discovered over Saturn's south pole has features that are similar to hurricanes on Earth and unlike anything astronomers have seen before, a new study finds. picked by AutumnLotus 5 months ago