Saturn, the sixth planet from the Sun, captivates scientists with its massive size, stunning rings, and diverse moons. Composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, it lacks a solid surface.

Without the glare of Saturn's rings, astronomers can get a better look at the planet's other features, such as its hundreds of moons. Between Huygens' observations in the mid-17th century and 1980 ...

Saturn will temporarily lose its iconic look from our ... and broken-off fragments of moons that were caught by the planet’s orbit. The exquisite ring system extends up to 175,000 miles (282,000 ...

Because the planet rotates on an axis of 26.7 degrees, our view of its rings changes depending on ... you can detect a lot more of the smaller moons.” Right now, Saturn is near the sun from ...

Saturn is more distant from us than Jupiter, so its moons are harder to see ... What about a grain of dust? Saturn’s rings are composed of trillions of small icy particles.

So for Saturn in particular, irregular moons can tell us more about the formation of its beautiful rings. Names of astronomical objects are governed by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

This includes studying the formation and evolution of planets, the moons and rings that orbit them ... curation and presents the main results from its analysis so far. The piece highlights ...

Until then, the spacecraft will continue making dives between Saturn and its plane of rings, sending back beautiful images of the world's clouds, moons and rings along the way. In September ...

Miranda, the deformed and most undersized of Uranus' large moons, features a patchwork of ridges, valleys, and great cliffs. Scientists consider its mixed-up surface to be the product of intense ...

A natural-color image of Saturn from space, the first in which Saturn, its moons and rings, and Earth, Venus and Mars, all are visible, is seen in this NASA handout taken from the Cassini ...