Tag Archives: moons

In a process called tidal heating, gravitational push and pull from Jupiter’s Galilean moons — Europa, Ganymede, Io and Callisto — and the gas giant itself stretch and squish the moons enough to warm them. As a result, some of the icy moons contain interiors warm enough to host oceans …

Exomoons around migrant hot Jupiters could hold onto life-giving atmospheres and maintain surface oceans for billions and billions of years. This is the conclusion of a paper from the University of Washington modeling the impact of inward migrating gas giants on their frozen moons. According Lehmer et al, moons around …

NASA’s Cassini robotic orbiter captured these images of Mimas and Epimetheus during a close flyby on January 30, 2017. This image of Saturn’s moon Epimetheus was taken on January 30, 2017 and received on Earth February 1, 2017. The image was taken using the CL1 and GRN filters. Image credit: …

New data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft reveal that Saturn’s moons may be younger than previously thought. A giant of a moon appears before a giant of a planet undergoing seasonal changes in this natural color view of Titan and Saturn from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / …