Tracking the rotation speed of solid planets, like the Earth and Mars, is a relatively simple task: Just measure the time it takes for a surface feature to roll into view again. But giant gas planets ...

Somewhere deep below Saturn s cloud tops, the planet rotates at a constant speed. Determining this interior period of rotation has proven extremely complicated. Now, with new Cassini results, a team ...

For years, Saturn made no sense. Measure its rotation rate using radio signals from its aurora and you get one number. Use the planet’s gravity field and you get another. Worse still, the ...

Though the rings appear solid from afar, they’re actually a dynamic, rotating system of icy debris. One theory suggests they may be remnants of a moon or comet torn apart by Saturn's immense gravity.

The picture shows the Saturn in infrared light with aurora as imaged by the orbiting Cassini spacecraft in 2007. NASA For four decades, Saturn appeared to be breaking physics. Each new measurement of ...

Rings appear to be common around planets in the solar system, but the dramatic rings of Saturn have long puzzled astronomers, as has the steep tilt of the rings and the planet’s rotation axis relative ...

Two scientists from CNRS and Sorbonne University working at the Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Ephemeris Calculation (Paris Observatory—PSL/CNRS) have just shown that the influence of Saturn's ...