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Cassini finds mingling moons may share a dark past
Despite the incredible diversity of Saturn’s icy moons, theirs is a story of great interaction. Some are pock-marked, some seemingly dirty, others pristine, one spongy, one two-faced, some still spewing with activity and some seeming to be captured from the far reaches of the solar system. Yet many of them have a common thread - black ‘stuff’ coating their surfaces.
Cassini Prepares to Fly by Walnut-Shaped Moon
Cassini will make its only close flyby of Saturn's odd, two-toned, walnut-shaped moon Iapetus on Sept. 10, 2007, at about 1,640 kilometers (1,000 miles) from the surface.
All about Phoebe Moon
Data from the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens mission are providing convincing evidence that Saturn’s moon Phoebe was formed elsewhere in the Solar System, and was only later caught by the planet's gravitational pull.
One way to unlock Phoebe’s secrets is using Cassini’s Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS), developed by a team of US (JPL), French and Italian (ASI) scientists and engineers. The science team is made by a large international group of US, Italian, French and German scientists led by the University of Arizona.
Methane found on Saturn plays crucial role in planet formation
Using an infrared spectrometer on the Cassini-Huygens Spacecraft, researchers have measured the temperature, winds and chemical composition of Saturn, its rings and one of its moons, Phoebe.
The data appears in the Dec. 23 edition of "Science Express" and in the Dec. 24 print edition of Science.
Edward Wishnow of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory participated in the research by measuring the spectrum of methane in the laboratory at temperatures and densities similar to the planet's - about 90 Kelvin (-297 degrees F) and one atmosphere of pressure. Methane (CH4), the principal component of natural gas, is the main indicator of carbon on Saturn and Jupiter, and it plays a crucial role in the planet’s atmospheric chemistry and history of formation.
Saturn's outer rings could be disappearing
A massive eruption of atomic oxygen from Saturn's outer rings, seen by Cassini's ultraviolet camera as the spacecraft neared its destination, may be an indication that the planet's wispy E ring is eroding so fast that it could disappear within 100 million years if not replenished.
Researchers reveal structure of protein that repairs damage to cancer cells
A team of University of Chicago scientists has shown how two proteins locate and repair damaged genetic material inside cells.
How Iron Gets into the North Pacific
Most oceanographers have assumed that, in the areas of the world's oceans known as High Nutrient, Low Chlorophyll (HNLC) regions, the iron needed to fertilize infrequent plankton blooms comes almost entirely from wind-blown dust. Phoebe Lam and James Bishop of the Earth Sciences Division at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have now shown that in the North Pacific, at least, it just ain't so.
A missed shot: The failure of HPV vaccination state requirements
In an article appearing in the current issue of
Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, experts from the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics and Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics review the controversy surrounding the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine debate, and its effects on ethical and public health issues.
