Saturn's Position in Space Pinpointed to Within Two Miles

You'd think that we'd know where Saturn is by now, but it's difficult to pinpoint exactly where the planet resides in space as it moves through our solar system. Now, though, scientists have used NASA's Cassini's spacecraft and the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio-telescope system to pinpoint the position of Saturn and its moons to within two miles.

The new findings are actually the most precise measurements of the planet's location to date. Yet the measurement was only possible due to two factors: Cassini's long-term presence in the Saturn system and VLBA's ability to discern extremely fine detail. The result of the combined data is a greatly improved table of predicted positions of objects in the Saturn system, known as an ephemeris.

"This work is a great step toward tying together our understanding of the orbits of the outer planets of our solar system and those of the inner planets," said Dayton Jones, the scientist who led the study, in a news release.

The new information will help enhance precise navigation of interplanetary spacecraft. In addition, it should help refine measurements of the masses of solar system objects, and improve predictions of when Saturn or its rings will pass in front of background stars.

The findings will help scientists with future research. Already, scientists are using new positional information to better chart Cassini's course around Saturn.

The findings were presented at a meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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