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So by studying plasma around Saturn and Titan - where it’s dense or thin, and where it’s hot or not - researchers could sense Saturn’s magnetosphere and watch how it moves. Plasma races from the sun in the solar wind but is also captured by magnetic fields.

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The instrument also detected plasma, a “soup” of super-hot ions (atoms that have lost one or more electrons) and free electrons that have been stripped from atoms. Its three antennas were each 33 feet (10 meters) long and stuck out like an insect’s feelers to detect radio waves rippling through the Saturnian environment. The instrument’s electrical field sensor was one of the most prominent pieces of hardware on the Cassini spacecraft. These two radio waves, converted to the human audio range, can be heard and seen in the new video. Moreover, the northern and southern rotational variations also appeared to change with the Saturnian seasons and the hemispheres actually swapped rates. Saturn’s radio emissions provided an excellent way to know when Saturn’s auroras are bright without needing to take images of the auroras.ĭata from the radio and plasma wave instrument showed that the variation in radio waves controlled by the planet's rotation is different in the northern and southern hemispheres. The radio and plasma science instrument was included on the Cassini mission to provide an up-close look at Saturn’s invisible environment that is impossible to see from Earth. And just as radio waves from Earth bounce back down, waves above Earth’s ionosphere bounce back out. The ionosphere is what allows amateur radio operators on Earth to chat across different continents when the curvature of Earth should block communication - their radio signals bounce off Earth’s ionosphere like a racquetball off a concrete wall. “We can’t listen to Saturn radiation from Earth because our ionosphere blocks it.”

“It’s invisible,” said Bill Kurth, a University of Iowa physicist and member of Cassini’s Radio and Plasma Wave Science team.

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Saturn is a favorite target for amateur and professional astronomers alike, for its beauty and because on a clear night, the planet and its rings are visible to anyone with a small optical telescope.īut with radio telescopes, Saturn is difficult to see from Earth.