Want Oil? Try Saturn's Titan

(NEWSER) - NASA's radar detected evidence of huge seas—one of them larger than any of the Great Lakes—on the surface of Saturn's moon, Titan. Although the spacecraft, Cassini, cannot confirm that the dark images are liquid until passing over the area again as scheduled in May, scientists believe they are bodies of liquid ethane or methane gas. More»

Primitive lifeform may explain absence of hydrogen

(NEWSER) - Something is sucking up hydrogen on one of Saturn's moons and NASA scientists believe it could be alive. Data from the Cassini probe suggests there is less hydrogen and acetylene on Titan's surface than scientists expected, a phenomenon that could be explained by the existence of primitive, methane-based lifeforms, the researchers write. More»

Watery Titan and salty Mars could have evidence of life

(NEWSER) - NASA has unlocked two more of the solar system's secrets, the Orlando Sentinel reports. The Cassini orbiter discovered evidence of an underground ocean churning deep below the surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, and the Mars Odyssey spacecraft has found ancient salt deposits on the red planet. Both discoveries have scientists excited about fresh possibilities of finding extraterrestrial life. More»

Cassini probe captures objects punching through ring

(NEWSER) - Inside Saturn's outermost ring, NASA's Cassini probe has captured activity that researchers liken to a cosmic snowball fight. Hundreds of balls of snow and ice up to half a mile in diameter have been spotted punching through the F ring at gentle speeds, leaving glittering trails behind them, the BBC reports. The snowballs are created by moons like Prometheus, which move along the outside of the ring, and researchers believe some of them survive to become moonlets of their own. More»

Salt water ice spewing out from under the surface

(NEWSER) - Saturn’s moon Enceladus is spewing what appears to be chunks of ice composed of salt-water vapor out of fractures in its southern pole, leading scientists to believe there may be a massive ocean lurking beneath its surface. The plumes were first discovered by the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft some time ago, but new measurements taken in 2008 and 2009 indicate they are much saltier than it seemed at first, the Washington Post reports. More»