NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute

This photo, taken in August by the Cassini orbiter, shows Saturn, Janus and Mimas as well as the planet's distinctive rings.

By Denise Chow
Space.com

As planets age, they typically become cooler and darker, but astronomers have long wondered why Saturn, one of the largest planets in the solar system, appears to be bucking the trend. Now, researchers are beginning to understand how the ringed planet manages to stay warm and bright.

A new study, led by astronomers at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom and the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon in France, discovered physical instability inside the planet creates layers of gas that keep the heat in, the researchers said. This explains why Saturn is not cooling at the rate scientists expect for a planet of its age.

"Scientists have been wondering for years if Saturn was using an additional source of energy to look so bright, but instead our calculations show that Saturn appears young because it can't cool down," Gilles Chabrier, a professor in the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Exeter, said in a statement.

Heat moves across Saturn's various layers of gas, but rather than dissipating into space, the layers act as a warm blanket for the ringed planet.

"Instead of heat being transported throughout the planet by large scale (convective) motions, as previously thought, it must be partly transferred by diffusion across different layers of gas inside Saturn," Chabrier said. "These separate layers effectively insulate the planet and prevent heat from radiating out efficiently."

Similar thermal processes can be found in Earth's oceans, in which warm, salty water sits beneath cooler waters with less salinity, the researchers said. In this type of layered convection, the denser, salty water stops vertical currents from forming, which stops heat from traveling upwards, penetrating the different layers.

The findings of the new study suggest that giant planets may have more complex thermal histories than scientists previously thought.

Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun, and the second-largest planet in the solar system. The gas giant is primarily made up of hydrogen and helium.

The results of the new study were published online April 21 in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Follow Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

• Photos: Saturn's Glorious Rings Up Close
• Saturn Quiz: How Well Do You Know the Ringed Planet?
• Latest Saturn Photos From NASA's Cassini Orbiter

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NASA / JPL

This diagram from a NASA video shows the alignment of Saturn, the Earth and the sun on April 28, 2013, when Saturn will be at opposition, making the ringed planet at its best and brightest of the year.

ByGeoff Gaherty
Space.com

In the early hours of Sunday morning, the planet Saturn reaches opposition. This places it exactly opposite the sun in our sky.

Opposition has several effects on Saturn. Most important, it marks its arrival in the evening sky. It is now visible all night long, a treat for the many people who consider this the most beautiful object in the sky. On Saturday and Sunday night, Saturn can be found in the southeastern sky, weather permitting.

Saturn's opposition also marks the planet's maximum brightness for the year, and the brightest it has been for a number of years. At magnitude 0.2, the ringed planet now outshines the first magnitude star Spica in the constellation Virgo. Astronomers measure the brightness of night sky in terms of magnitude, with lower numbers denoting exceptional brightness. [Photos of Saturn's Dazzling Rings]

You can easily spot Saturn and Spica by following the old rule: "Arc to Arcturus, then speed on to Spica." Start by following the arc formed by the handle of the Big Dipper away from the Dipper's bowl in a broad arc across the sky, first reaching Arcturus in kite-shaped Boötes, and then on to Spica and Saturn in Virgo. Sparkling Spica is on the right, steady Saturn on the left. Starlight, coming from a distant point, is deflected by the Earth's atmosphere and twinkles. A planet like Saturn is larger than a star in apparent size, and so is less affected by atmospheric turbulence, so shines with a steady light.

Starry Night Software

This sky map shows the location of Saturn in the southeastern night sky at 10 p.m. on Saturday to observers at mid-northern latitudes.

Saturn is most famous for its magnificent set of rings. All the outer planets have rings, but Saturn's are the brightest and most easily seen. Composed of small pieces of rock and ice, these rings are thin and transparent. When the rings pass in front of a star, the star's light shines through undiminished.

How much magnification do you need to see Saturn's rings? Although some people claim to have seen them with their unaided eyes, most people need a magnification of about 25 power to see that Saturn is an oval rather than a disk. For a really good view, 100 power is much better. Even so, Saturn appears much smaller in a telescope than most people expect. Although tiny, Saturn's perfection astounds all first-time viewers.

Besides its rings, Saturn has an amazing collection of moons, 62 in all. Its brightest moons are mostly in orbits in the same plane as the rings, as you can see in the chart. Its largest moon, Titan, is one of the two largest moons in the solar system; Jupiter's Ganymede is the other. These are the only two moons large enough to have extensive atmospheres. Titan is also the farthest object from Earth on which a spacecraft has landed, the unmanned Huygens probe in 2005.

Starry Night Software

On Sunday morning, the planet Saturn reaches opposition close to the border between Virgo and Libra. Its brighter moons mostly appear to move in ovals in the same plane as its famous rings.

Titan can be seen easily in almost any telescope. Rhea, Tethys, and Dione can be seen with a 90mm telescope. The innermost moons, Mimas and Enceladus, are more challenging because the lie so close to the bright rings.

Iapetus is Saturn's most interesting moon. Its orbit is not in the plane of the rings, but is tilted at a steep angle. Like all large moons in the solar system, it always keeps one face turned toward its planet, but one side of Iapetus is coated with a dark sooty material. This results in Iapetus being much brighter when west of the planet than when it is to the east.

Because Saturn's moons can appear at any angle from the planet, you will need to use a planetarium software program to identify the individual moons and to distinguish them from background stars. Watching them change positions from night to night is fascinating.

Saturn holds something for every skywatcher. Everyone can enjoy spotting it in the sky, and those with telescopes can admire its rings and track the dance of its many moons.

Editor's Note:If you snap an amazing photo of Saturn and its rings and would like to share it with Space.com for a story or image gallery, please send comments and images to Managing Editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

This article was provided to Space.com by Starry Night Education, the leader in space science curriculum solutions. Follow Starry Night on Twitter @StarryNightEdu. Original article at Space.com.

• Latest Saturn Photos From NASA's Cassini Orbiter
• Saturn Quiz: How Well Do You Know the Ringed Planet?
• Best Telescopes for 2013

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Starry Night Software

This is for Wednesday, April 24, 8 p.m. local time. As seen from Central America, the Caribbean, and southern Africa, the moon will actually pass in front of Spica.

By Joe Rao
Space.com

The moon will rendezvous with two bright objects in our current spring evening sky on consecutive nights this week, giving skywatchers a treat.

The first meeting comes on Wednesday, when Earth's nearest neighbor passes close to the bright star Spica in the constellation Virgo. Then, on Thursday night, the moon will pass the ringed wonder of the solar system, the planet Saturn.

The Wednesday pairing will be interesting, because it will look a bit different depending on where you’re located. [Amazing Photos of the April Night Sky for 2013]

For those in the eastern part of North America, about an hour after sunset when it will be reasonably dark, you’ll see the nearly full moon rising in the east-southeast, with bluish Spica twinkling just over one degree above it. (Your clenched fist held at arm's length measures about 10 degrees across.)

The moon and Spica actually appeared even closer together — less than 0.5 degrees, which is the apparent width of the moon in our sky — only a couple of hours earlier. Unfortunately, it was still daylight and neither the moon nor Spica was above the horizon at that time.

So when you first see the pair on Wednesday evening, they will be in the process of gradually drawing farther apart. This will be especially evident later on in the night as they get higher in the sky. By around 1 a.m. local daylight time, the moon will have noticeably moved well off to the left of Spica. (As it moves in its orbit around the Earth, the moon shifts to the east at roughly its own width per hour). 

And that’s also why those living in the western part of North America will see a much wider gap between Spica and the moon as darkness falls compared to those living farther east – it is, after all, three hours later.     

Although Spica is one of the 21 brightest stars in the sky, it will appear a bit overwhelmed by the brilliant light of the moon, which is just one day from full phase. Yet as the moon slowly moves away to the east during the night, Spica may appear to become a bit more prominent. 

Even more interesting is the sight that you’ll have if you live in the Caribbean, the northern part of South America, southern Africa or Madagascar.  For observers in those regions, the moon will pass directly in front of Spica — an occultation, as astronomers call it.  To see a map depicting the zone of visibility of this event, along with predictions for nearly 400 locations, click here.

Thursday, it’s Saturn’s turn
On Thursday evening, as the full moon rises in the east-southeast sky, it will be accompanied by a very bright yellowish-white “star” shining about 4 degrees to its upper left. 

That will be the planet Saturn, just a few days from opposition and shining at a brilliant magnitude of -0.1.  That makes Saturn nearly three times brighter than Spica and equal to the star Arcturus in brightness. 

There is a distinct difference between Saturn and Arcturus, though: Although both are of the same brightness, Arcturus twinkles and glimmers with an orange hue compared to Saturn, which shines with a steady and sedate yellowish-white color.  

So despite its relative close proximity to the moon, Saturn will stand out better than Spica did on the previous night.

Saturn reaches opposition (180 degrees from the sun) on Sunday and will then be visible from dusk until dawn. A telescope will show the rings tilted 18 degrees with their northern face in view. The rings are continuing to open toward a maximum of almost 27 degrees in 2017.

Mark your calendars
A final note: Some hours before the moon rises for North America on Thursday, a very slight partial lunar eclipse will take place, visible to those in Europe, Africa and much of Asia. 

But less than a year from now, on the night of April 14-15, 2014, the moon will undergo a total eclipse, and North Americans will have a ringside seat for that event, as it will occur high in the sky in the middle of the night. 

And what’s more, the totally eclipsed moon will be very close to the star Spica, making an eye-catching celestial scene even more spectacular.

Editor's note: If you have an amazing picture of the moon or any other night sky view that you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, send photos, comments and your name and location to Managing Editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, N.Y. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

• 10 Surprising Moon Facts
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Modified version of image from NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute

Water particles flow from Saturn's rings into the planet's atmosphere along magnetic field lines.

By Miriam Kramer
Space.com

Astronomers using an observatory in Hawaii kicked off a month-long campaign to study the northern lights on Saturn study Sunday in a live webcast from Hawaii's iconic Keck Observatory.

During a three-hour webcast, scientists discussed everything from the ringed planet's atmosphere to new discoveries made about the gas giant in the last year. While speaking with the public via social media, the researchers also used the Keck Observatory to observe auroras on Saturn to understand how the mysterious phenomenon works. The scientists weren't able to show live-video of the observations, but they did review some major Saturn discoveries during the webcast.

"Up until now, it's like we have been looking at the aurora in black and white — and now we're trying to look in color," Tom Stallard, an astronomer at the University of Leicester who participated in the observations, said in a statement. "We're hoping to get much more depth to the observations we have taken — filling in a far more complete picture of the aurora as a whole, rather than disconnected parts." [See Amazing Photos of Saturn's Rings]

The month-long campaign organized by astronomers from the University of Leicester in the U.K. brings together an international group of observers using the Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn, the Hubble space telescope and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile. Over the course of the next month, scientists will take observations of the ringed beauty to understand its northern lights.

Yesterday, scientists were following up on their surprising finding that Saturn's rings cause it to "rain" on the planet. This "ring rain" on Saturnchanges the molecular composition of the planet's atmosphere, potentially creating its distinctive dark and light bands on the planet's face, the author of the study, James O'Donoghue, said.

NASA / JPL/ University of Leicester / University of Arizona

Composite image of Saturn shows the entire planet, including the rings as seen by NASA's Cassini spacecraft from the south. The green glow represents aurora lights.

The ring rain could be responsible for influencing the auroras of the planet. By using this observing time from Keck, the scientists are hoping to understand exactly what that influence could be.

"The weather wasn't great at that time," O'Donoghue said of the two hours it took them to make the ring rain discovery. These new measurements are going to focus on refining those results, O'Donoghue added.

Auroras on Earth are created when charged particles from the sun shoot toward the planet. The particles are trapped in Earth's magnetic field and are pulled into the planet's atmosphere, creating the brilliant light show at the poles.

This time of the Saturnian year is particularly important for observations of Saturn because the planet's seasons are shifting. The gas giant is about to enter into its seven-year-long spring, and scientists are hoping to observe the planet's new season from as many different angles as possible.

The Keck Observatory, located on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii, houses two 33-foot (10 meters) telescopes that observe in both the optical and infrared range of light.

The Cassini spacecraft — managed by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency — has been in orbit around Saturn since 2004 and is now on an extended mission that will last until at least 2017.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

• Saturn Quiz: How Well Do You Know the Ringed Planet?
• Latest Saturn Photos From NASA's Cassini Orbiter
• Keck Observatory: Cosmic Photos from Hawaii's Mauna Kea

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NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

The recently formed south polar vortex stands out in the color-swaddled atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, in this natural color view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

By SPACE.com

New photos from NASA's Cassini spacecraft show that an icy cloud is growing over the south pole of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, hinting that a seven-year fall has taken hold at the cloudy moon's southern realm.

Scientists are not sure what the budding cloud is made of, but the same icy haze has been clearing over Titan's north pole, where it is currently springtime.

"We associate this particular kind of ice cloud with winter weather on Titan, and this is the first time we have detected it anywhere but the north pole," Donald E. Jennings, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement. The research by Jennings and his colleagues is based on observations with the composite infrared spectrometer (CIRS) on the Cassini probe, which has been studying Saturn for nearly a decade. [Amazing Photos of Saturn's Moon Titan]

Titan is the second-largest moon in the solar system and the only one with clouds and a dense, planet-like atmosphere. Earlier observations by Cassini showed that warm air from Titan's southern hemisphere was rising high in its atmosphere and then being dumped over the moon's north pole, where it cooled and descended, forming an icy cloud. (The pattern is similar to the Hadley cell on Earth, which transports heat from the tropics to the subtropics.)

The new Cassini observations suggest this large-scale pattern of air flow over Titan has reversed direction, and winter is coming for the moon's southern hemisphere.

Titan's north pole officially began its transition from winter to spring in August 2009, and the researchers now believe that the circulation shift occurred that year. But the southern ice cloud wasn't spotted until July 2012, and scientists only saw the first hints of the change at Titan's south pole in early 2012, when Cassini detected a high-altitude "haze hood," a swirling polar vortex and other features linked to cold weather.

"This lag makes sense because first the new circulation pattern has to bring loads and loads of gases to the south pole," Carrie Anderson, a CIRS team member and Cassini participating scientist at Goddard, said in a statement from NASA. "Then, the air has to sink. The ices have to condense. And the pole has to be under enough shadow to protect the vapors that condense to form those ices."

 As for the ice clouds' composition, scientists say they have ruled out some chemicals, including methane, ethane and hydrogen cyanide. Whatever the makeup, the clouds could play a role in the complex chemistry of Titan's atmosphere.

"What's happening at Titan's poles has some analogy to Earth and to our ozone holes," Goddard's F. Michael Flasar, CIRS principal investigator, said. "And on Earth, the ices in the high polar clouds aren't just window dressing: They play a role in releasing the chlorine that destroys ozone. How this affects Titan chemistry is still unknown. So it's important to learn as much as we can about this phenomenon, wherever we find it."

Follow SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

• Latest Saturn Photos From NASA's Cassini Orbiter
• Titan, Saturn's Largest Moon, Explained (Infographic)
• Landing on Titan: Pictures from Huygens Probe on Saturn Moon

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NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

This raw image of Saturn's icy moon Rhea was taken on March 10, 2013 by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The camera was pointing toward Rhea at approximately 174,181 miles away.

By Mike Wall, SPACE.com

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has snapped its last up-close photos of Saturn's icy moon Rhea, revealing a battered satellite covered in craters from violent impacts.

Cassini took the amazing new photos of Rhea on March 9 during its fourth and final planned encounter with the Saturn moon. During the encounter, the probe flew within just 620 miles of Rhea, which is Saturn's second-largest satellite. "Take a good, long, luxurious look at these sights from another world, as they will be the last close-ups you'll ever see of this particular moon," Cassini imaging team lead Carolyn Porco, of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo., said in a statement accompanying the photos.

The flyby was designed primarily to measure Rhea's gravity field, mission scientists said. But Cassini also managed to take 12 pictures of the frigid moon's battered, pockmarked surface, including one that showcases a mysterious long, curving fracture called a graben.

Rhea is the second-largest of Saturn's 60-odd known moons, with a diameter of 949 miles. It's far smaller than the ringed planet's biggest natural satellite, Titan, which at 3,200 miles across is nearly 50 percent wider than Earth's moon.

Rhea was discovered in 1672 by the mathematician and astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini, who gave his name to the NASA mission currently studying the Saturn system.

In 2010, researchers determined that the moon has a wispy atmosphere dominated by oxygen and carbon dioxide. The oxygen likely was blasted free from water ice on Rhea's surface by charged particles streaming from Saturn, scientists say, but the origin of the carbon dioxide is more mysterious.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

This image was taken on March 9, 2013 by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The camera was pointing toward Rhea at approximately 1,727 miles away.

The Cassini mission — a joint effort involving NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency — launched in 1997 and arrived at Saturn in 2004. It has been studying the ringed planet and its many moons ever since, and will continue to do so on an extended mission until at least 2017.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on SPACE.com.

• Latest Saturn Photos From NASA's Cassini Orbiter
• Saturn Quiz: How Well Do You Know the Ringed Planet?
• Saturn Up Close and Personal - Cassini's 15th Anniversary Video

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ESA

This artist's impression shows NASA's Cassini spacecraft exploring the magnetic environment of Saturn. Saturn's magnetosphere is depicted in gray, while the complex bow shock region — the shock wave in the solar wind that surrounds the magnetosphere — is in blue. The image is not to scale.

By Mike Wall
Space.com

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has spotted solar particles moving at incredible speeds near Saturn, giving scientists a rare up-close look at phenomena that occur during dramatic star explosions.

The particles flowed from the sun during a strong blast of solar wind, then plowed into Saturn's magnetic field shortly thereafter. This encounter, which Cassini observed in February 2007, created a shockwave that accelerated the particles to super-high energies, scientists said.

Similar shockwaves commonly form in the aftermath of massive star explosions called supernovas, ramping up nearby particles to nearly the speed of light. Researchers think supernova shockwaves are the primary source of cosmic rays, high-energy particles that pervade our Milky Way galaxy and slam into Earth's atmosphere continuously.

It can be tough to study distant supernovas and their shockwaves, so Cassini's observations provide a welcome proxy, scientists said.

"Cassini has essentially given us the capability of studying the nature of a supernova shock in situ in our own solar system, bridging the gap to distant high-energy astrophysical phenomena that are usually only studied remotely," Adam Masters, of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Sagamihara, Japan, said in a statement.

Masters is lead author of a study reporting the Cassini findings, which was published this week in the journal Nature Physics.

The Saturn shockwave may be the most powerful ever detected at the ringed planet and suggests that certain kinds of shocks can be surprisingly efficient particle accelerators, researchers said.

The $3.2 billion Cassini mission is a joint effort of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. Cassini launched in 1997 and arrived at the Saturn system in 2004, delivering a lander called Huygens to the planet's huge moon Titan in January 2005.

Cassini will continue studying the ringed planet and its many moons for several years to come; Cassini's mission has been extended through at least 2017.

Follow Space.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. 

• Latest Saturn Photos From NASA's Cassini Orbiter
• Saturn Quiz: How Well Do You Know the Ringed Planet?
• Supernova Photos: Great Images of Star Explosions

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NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS

This artist's concept envisions what hydrocarbon ice forming on a liquid hydrocarbon sea of Saturn's moon Titan might look like. Image released Jan. 8, 2012.

By SPACE.com

Chunks of hydrocarbon ice may float atop the lakes and seas of Saturn's huge moon Titan, a new study reveals.

The presence of such ice floes in the ethane and methane seas on Titan would make the moon an even more exciting target for astrobiologists, researchers said.

"One of the most intriguing questions about these lakes and seas is whether they might host an exotic form of life," study co-author Jonathan Lunine of Cornell University said in a statement. "And the formation of floating hydrocarbon ice will provide an opportunity for interesting chemistry along the boundary between liquid and solid, a boundary that may have been important in the origin of terrestrial life."

Titan — Saturn's largest moon, with a diameter of 3,200 miles — is the only body in our solar system apart from Earth known to host stable bodies of liquid on its surface. While Earth's weather cycle is based on water, Titan's involves hydrocarbons, with liquid ethane and methane falling as rain and pooling in large lakes and seas. [Amazing Photos of Titan]

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has spotted a huge network of these seas in Titan's northern hemisphere, along with a handful in the moon's southern reaches.

Cassini scientists had previously assumed that these seas would not have floating ice, since solid methane is denser than its liquid counterpart and should thus sink. But the new study suggests that things are not so simple.

The researchers created a model investigating how Titan's seas interact with the moon's nitrogen-rich atmosphere, creating pockets of varying composition and temperature.

The team determined that hydrocarbon ice should indeed float in the moon's seas, as long as the temperature is just below methane's freezing point — minus 297 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 183 degrees Celsius — and the ice is at least 5 percent "air," which is the average composition for young sea ice here on Earth.

This ice may be colorless, perhaps with a reddish-brown tint provided by Titan's atmosphere, researchers said.

"We now know it's possible to get methane-and-ethane-rich ice freezing over on Titan in thin blocks that congeal together as it gets colder — similar to what we see with Arctic sea ice at the onset of winter," lead author Jason Hofgartner, also of Cornell, said in a statement. "We'll want to take these conditions into consideration if we ever decide to explore the Titan surface some day."

Floating sea ice could be a fleeting phenomenon on Titan, if it exists at all. If the temperature drops a few degrees, the ice will begin to sink, researchers said.

Cassini should be able to test the new model out, and soon. Titan's northern spring is underway, meaning lakes and seas in the moon's northern reaches are warming up.

As this happens, ice may rise to the top, creating a surface that appears brighter and more reflective to Cassini's radar instrument. As the area continues to warm, the ice should melt, producing an entirely liquid surface that will look darker to Cassini, researchers said.

"Cassini's extended stay in the Saturn system gives us an unprecedented opportunity to watch the effects of seasonal change at Titan," Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement. "We'll have an opportunity to see if the theories are right."

The $3.2 billion Cassini mission, a joint effort of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, launched in 1997 and arrived at Saturn in 2004. It will continue to observe the ringed planet and its many moons through at least 2017.

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• Titan, Saturn's Largest Moon, Explained (Infographic)
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