Photo NASA's Cassini probe has made its first dive inside Saturn's rings, skimming about 1,900 miles (3,000KM) over the surface of the gas giant's stormy atmosphere. America's space boffins briefly lost contact with their craft during its descent on Wednesday. That's because the dish antenna used to phone home to Earth acted as a …

Video NASA's Cassini spacecraft will enter the final stages of its mission by nosediving between Saturn’s rings on April 26, before it rams into the planet's atmosphere and vaporizes. The spaceship was launched 20 years ago and has been in orbit around Saturn since 2004. Now, running low on fuel, it's preparing for the descent …

The Cassini probe's commenced its death dive into Saturn's clouds, but is still sending back high-resolution of the gas giant's rings. The “ring-grazing” orbit phase began in November, with a burn in December that put it in position for its planned demise. Indeed, the probe's now completed 20 of the 42 orbits and in April will …

The Cassini space probe has begun a series of orbits designed to swing it through the edges of Saturn's ring system. The probe, which has been orbiting the gas giant since 2004, fired a six-second burst of its rocket motor at 0409 PT (1209 UTC) to put it into a swooping orbit 57,000 miles (91,000 kilometers) over the gas giant …

The Voyager mission is celebrating another remarkable milestone, the 35th anniversary of Voyager 2's closest encounter with Saturn. Voyager 1 launched on September 5th, 1977, a few days after Voyager 2's August 20th, ascent. Despite that launch order, Voyager 1 made it to Saturn first, making its closest approach on November …

NASA has been obliged to clarify that if the hypothetical Planet 9 exists, it is not responsible for "unexplained deviations" in the orbit of the Cassini spacecraft around Saturn. Back in January, CalTech boffins Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown claimed to have found evidence for a mysterious body, around 10 times the mass of …

NASA has published some unprocessed images of Saturn's moon Enceladus, grabbed earlier this week when the Cassini spacecraft swooped to within 49km (30 miles) of the icy satellite's south polar region. Images from the intimate encounter include Enceladus posing with Saturn's rings... Enceladus and Saturn's rings. Pic: NASA/ …

NASA's Cassini spacecraft yesterday made it closest approach yet to Saturn's moon Enceladus, swooping to within 49km (30 miles) of the icy body's south polar region. In the process, it passed through the liquid plumes which spew from Enceladus, originating in its sub-surface ocean. Scientists hope a small sample of plume …

Vid NASA is just days away from a flyby in which its Cassini space probe will fly through liquid plumes on Saturn's moon Enceladus. The agency's scientists said on Wednesday, October 28, its craft would fly down within 30 miles of the surface of the icy moon and attempt to pass through the plumes erupting from its south pole in …

The wobblings of the warm and perhaps welcoming Enceladus, moon of Saturn, are said by top boffins to offer a surefire clue that wetness able to sustain life is to be found within. It seems that top boffins at Cornell uni have finally become willing to go firm on the matter following lengthy observations of the moon's motion, …

NASA has released images from the Cassini probe's last fly-by of Saturn's moon Dione. The August 17 encounter captured Dione's icy pockmarked landscape from a distance of 474 kilometres above the moon's surface. Cassini came within 100km of Dione in December 2011. The images offer another look at the haunting moon and were …

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has passed tantalisingly close to Saturn's pitted, icy Dione moon. The probe was within 321 miles (516 kilometres) of Dione on 16 June, the US space agency said. Cassini will have an even closer encounter with the moon on 17 August, when it's expected to swoop within 295 miles (474 kilometres) of …

NASA's Cassini spacecraft is expected to complete its final close encounter with Hyperion, one of Saturn's many moons, on Sunday. The probe will pass Hyperion at a distance of around 21,000 miles (34,000 kilometres) tomorrow, the US space agency said. However, images from the fly-by won't be beamed back to Earth until Monday …

Mimas has long been thought to be one of the less noteworthy moons of its vast ringed primary, Saturn – apart from its frankly worrying resemblance to the Death Star, that is. But now, a new study indicates that the humdrum space boulder could have, er, hidden depths. Mimas Actually, that is a moon. Not a space station A …

Boffins have now counted 101 different geysers spewing material from the surface of Enceladus, one of Saturn's icy moons. The discovery in data collected from NASA's Cassini probe reinforces the theory that a vast ocean is sloshing about beneath the cold surface. Some consider this to be the most promising location known for …

Astro-boffins have come up with new and compelling evidence that the ocean buried inside Saturn’s largest moon Titan is probably as salty as Earth’s Dead Sea, sadly making it an unlikely location for alien life. Researchers found that Titan's ice shell, which overlies a very salty ocean, varies in thickness around the moon, …

NASA is chuffed to be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the splendid Cassini spacecraft's arrival in orbit around mighty Saturn, the ringed gas colossus of the outer solar system. Cassini left Earth on October 15th, 1997 and visited Jupiter in 2000. On July 1st, 2004, it surrendered to Saturn's gravity. Cassini image of …

Astroboffins monitoring Titan have spotted something new that hints at how the moon's weather works. The folks behind the discovery have named the new feature a “magic island”, because nobody knows what it is or why it appeared. The discovery is detailed in a Nature Geoscience letter titled “Transient features in a Titan sea …