NASA Picture of the Day © Brad Croslin Text: Keighley Rockcliffe (NASA GSFC, UMBC CSST, CRESST II)

Spokes on Saturn's B Ring

Don’t get spooked by Saturn’s ghostly spokes! Today we feature a nearly two-hour timelapse of Saturn and its rings looping forwards and backwards. A day on Saturn is only 10 hours long, so two hours of observation covers quite a bit of its rotation. If you look closely, a ghoulish shadow appears and disappears as Saturn’s B ring rotates. Decades of observation with Voyager 2, Cassini, and Hubble show the appearance of Saturn’s spokes varies with the planet’s seasons. Like Earth, Saturn’s spin axis is tilted compared to the plane of its orbit around the Sun. During Saturn’s equinox, the rings are less tilted away from the Sun and the planet receives more evenly distributed sunlight and solar wind. Although their origin is still uncertain, Saturn’s spokes may be shadows of and reflections off of dust and ice levitating above the rings caused by electromagnetic interactions between the solar wind and the planet’s magnetic field. Find dark skies and look up this August to witness the Perseid meteor shower uninhibited by the Moon!

Upcoming Launches

Long March 8A | SatNet LEO Group 23 04/08/2026 10:52 — China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-53 04/08/2026 19:05 — SpaceX
Smart Dragon 3 | OSE HS-01 & 02 05/08/2026 04:38 — China Rocket Co. Ltd.
Falcon 9 Block 5 | BlueBird 11-13 (Block 2 #6-8) 05/08/2026 09:42 — SpaceX
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-38 08/08/2026 16:00 — SpaceX

General News

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China da un paso firme hacia la reutilización de cohetes con su nuevo lanzador pesado

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29/10/25 11:43 Read more →
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Airbus, Leonardo y Thales se unen en una nueva alianza espacial

En un movimiento histórico, las gigantes europeas Airbus, Leonardo y Thales han anunciado la creac...

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Space RSS Feed

Neuraspace raises $18 million to expand sovereign space awareness

Neuraspace, the Portuguese space traffic management startup, announced around $18 million in fresh funding Aug. 5 to expand European space domain awareness and defense capabilities. The post Neuraspace raises $18 million to expand sovereign space awareness appeared first on SpaceNews.

05/08/2026 08:00

Voyager seeks relaxed requirements in NASA commercial space station RFP

Voyager Technologies remains upbeat about the prospects for its Starlab commercial space station but is hoping for some tweaks to NASA’s plans to support the station’s development. The post Voyager seeks relaxed requirements in NASA commercial space station RFP appeared first on SpaceNews.

05/08/2026 05:01

SpaceX to begin Starship orbital flights

SpaceX plans to start deploying upgraded Starlink satellites into orbit on the next flight of its Starship vehicle, scheduled for as soon as the end of the month. The post SpaceX to begin Starship orbital flights appeared first on SpaceNews.

05/08/2026 00:51

Rocket Lab, STR win Space Force contracts for airborne-target tracking

The companies, along with a third unidentified vendor, won $615 million in contracts for the AMTI satellite program The post Rocket Lab, STR win Space Force contracts for airborne-target tracking appeared first on SpaceNews.

05/08/2026 00:47

Telesat lands $1.63 billion Canadian defense contract

Arctic communications award will fund an expansion of Telesat’s Lightspeed, taking the planned LEO network to 225 spacecraft The post Telesat lands $1.63 billion Canadian defense contract appeared first on SpaceNews.

05/08/2026 00:00

NOAA purchases Spire hyperspectral microwave sounder data

SAN FRANCISCO – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will continue to evaluate data from Spire Global’s Hyperspectral Microwave Sounder (HyMS) under a $3 million contract extension announced Aug. 4. […] The post NOAA purchases Spire hyperspectral microwave sounder data appeared first on SpaceNews.

04/08/2026 22:05

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Noticias del Espacio es un proyecto personal sin ánimo de lucro dedicado a recopilar y compartir noticias sobre exploración espacial y avances científicos.