http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpegMod/PIA06063_modest.jpg
The detail is getting better and better every day for Saturn itself:
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpegMod/PIA06060_modest.jpg
Mission page here:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm
Getting hit hard with traffic at present, unsurprisingly.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 11 June 2004 16:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 11 June 2004 16:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 11 June 2004 16:09 (nineteen years ago) link
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/small-moons/images/PIA06066.jpg
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 12 June 2004 21:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― Keith Watson (kmw), Saturday, 12 June 2004 21:58 (nineteen years ago) link
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 21:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 21:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 July 2004 00:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 July 2004 01:28 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 July 2004 01:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― retort pouch (retort pouch), Thursday, 1 July 2004 02:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 1 July 2004 02:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 July 2004 02:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 1 July 2004 02:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 July 2004 03:04 (nineteen years ago) link
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 1 July 2004 03:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 July 2004 03:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 1 July 2004 03:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 July 2004 03:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 July 2004 03:48 (nineteen years ago) link
I remember doing the Michaelson-Morley experiment at school and getting a result, within error limits, close to the documented speed of light in air. "Bloody hell," I thought.
― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 1 July 2004 10:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― robster (robster), Thursday, 1 July 2004 10:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Thursday, 1 July 2004 10:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 July 2004 16:09 (nineteen years ago) link
"That's no moon. It's a space station!"
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/large-moons/images/PIA05423.jpg
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 06:59 (nineteen years ago) link
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm
But the main reason to go to the page -- Huygens is now hours away from arriving at Titan:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/events/huygensDescent/index.cfm
Initial data won't be arriving until 7:24 am PST tomorrow at the earliest -- which is perfect as I'll be at work, settled in and ready to waste many hours watching to see what we've found.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 03:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 14 January 2005 03:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 03:49 (nineteen years ago) link
http://www.esa.int/images/imageL,132.jpg
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 03:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Friday, 14 January 2005 11:02 (nineteen years ago) link
1300 GMT here - think it may only have 'landed' about NOW ?>1500 GMT before first data may be received/confirmed...
am excited like i was young again
― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 12:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― Madchen (Madchen), Friday, 14 January 2005 13:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 13:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 14:22 (nineteen years ago) link
― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 14:23 (nineteen years ago) link
John Humphries was making a big deal about "tangerine seas" this morning, and if there isn't a tangerine sea and marmalade sky in these photos I am gonna be so disappointed.
― Johnney B (Johnney B), Friday, 14 January 2005 14:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 15:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 15:28 (nineteen years ago) link
latest time revision for possible data = approx 1715 CET / 1615 GMT
― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 15:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 15:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:21 (nineteen years ago) link
looks like announcement about to be made...
― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dominique (dleone), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:58 (nineteen years ago) link
― MY FAVOURITE LIGHTER IS CHEESEBURGER (trigonalmayhem), Friday, 14 January 2005 18:05 (nineteen years ago) link
bbc news24 is going to be watched to within an inch of its life when i get home
― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 18:13 (nineteen years ago) link
― Gator Magoon (Chris Barrus), Friday, 14 January 2005 18:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 18:28 (nineteen years ago) link
― Yr3k (dymaxia), Friday, 14 January 2005 18:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― Gator Magoon (Chris Barrus), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dominique (dleone), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dominique (dleone), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― Yr3k (dymaxia), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 20:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 20:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 20:04 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dominique (dleone), Friday, 14 January 2005 20:05 (nineteen years ago) link
http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/cassini_huygens/huygens_land/landing_01_H.jpg
Higher up than the midrange shot:
http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/cassini_huygens/huygens_land/landing_02_H.jpg
More photos and reports soon.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 21:53 (nineteen years ago) link
― Gator Magoon (Chris Barrus), Friday, 14 January 2005 22:36 (nineteen years ago) link
A 360 view from about 8 kilometers up.
A smaller section of same:
http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/cassini_huygens/huygens_land/Picture2.jpg
And the first color ground image.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 15 January 2005 15:28 (nineteen years ago) link
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 15 January 2005 15:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 15 January 2005 15:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 15 January 2005 16:28 (nineteen years ago) link
I guess you can say you weren't disappointed!
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 17 January 2005 04:41 (nineteen years ago) link
Another view of that 'coastline' area:
ihttp://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/cassini_huygens/huygens_land/press_release_050120/HRICoastLineMoasic_H.jpg
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 January 2005 15:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 21 January 2005 15:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― Gator Magoon (Chris Barrus), Friday, 21 January 2005 16:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 January 2005 16:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― Yr3k (dymaxia), Friday, 21 January 2005 16:13 (nineteen years ago) link
"In total, the core of our team has invested something like 80 man years on this experiment, 18 of which are mine," Atkinson wrote. "I think right now the key lesson is this β if you're looking for a job with instant and guaranteed success, this isn't it."
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 January 2005 16:14 (nineteen years ago) link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/sci_nat_enl_1108646012/img/1.jpg
The 440km-wide circular feature resembles a large crater or part of a ringed basin, either of which could have been formed when a comet or asteroid tens of km in size slammed into Titan. This is the first impact feature identified in radar images of Titan. (Image: Nasa/JPL)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 17 February 2005 17:39 (nineteen years ago) link
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/video-details.cfm?videoID=99
― Lingbertt, Wednesday, 19 October 2005 06:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― Bill A (Bill A), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 09:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― robster (robster), Thursday, 20 October 2005 10:39 (eighteen years ago) link
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0505/saturnplane_cassini.jpg
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 19:11 (eighteen years ago) link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/sci_nat_enl_1132146654/img/1.jpg
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 19:23 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 11 March 2006 02:22 (eighteen years ago) link
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/videothumbnails/images/IMG002117-br402.jpg
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:00 (seventeen years ago) link
...s on the surface.
― DOQQUN (donut), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:11 (seventeen years ago) link
― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:17 (seventeen years ago) link
Titan's all cold and stuff!
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:18 (seventeen years ago) link
I was kind of disappointed about "earth-like" comparisons in the narrative. Dudes, it's METHANE RAIN and -180 degrees. It ain't earth. (OR IS IT??)
― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:28 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:29 (seventeen years ago) link
It's ROCHESTER, NY!
― DOQQUN (donut), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 5 May 2006 20:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― robster (robster), Friday, 5 May 2006 21:41 (seventeen years ago) link
― Lingbert, Saturday, 3 March 2007 19:38 (seventeen years ago) link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6908190.stm
another moon, only 2km in diam. are these really worth classing as moons i ask yer. Aren't they just spin-offs from the ring of rocks?
― Ste, Friday, 20 July 2007 15:33 (sixteen years ago) link
Well but they're special rocks.
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 21 July 2007 00:24 (sixteen years ago) link
special as in olympics?
― StanM, Saturday, 21 July 2007 00:25 (sixteen years ago) link
Images coming in from yesterday's close flyby of Iapetus
http://www.planetary.org/image/iapetus_cassini_20070910_SATUSHINE001_PRIME_colormos_lg.jpg
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 00:05 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.planetary.org/image/iapetus_cassini_20070910_ICYMAP003_UVIS_mosaic_regan_lg.jpg
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 00:06 (sixteen years ago) link
these are kind of creepy.
― 31g, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 02:40 (sixteen years ago) link
More evidence for Titan having a subsurface ocean
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 21 March 2008 03:45 (fifteen years ago) link
Late late mission barnstorming over Saturn
Although the first mission extension for Cassini hasn't officially been approved yet by NASA Headquarters (which strikes me as being kind of silly, since the primary mission comes to a close in less than two months!!), the mission is already trying to figure out what to do beyond the two-year proposed Extended Mission. Last week there was a meeting of the Outer Planets Assessment Group, and Cassini's Deputy Project Scientist, Linda Spilker, gave a presentation on what to expect from the extended missions (here it is, in PDF format, well worth a look). There was a lot of stuff about the science to be expected from the extended mission, and a proposal for an extended-extended mission, but the real stunner was a scenario she presented for Cassini's end-of-life: to spend the very, very last phase of the mission in an orbit that threads Cassini between Saturn's cloud tops and the innermost D ring.Folks, the gap between Saturn and the D ring is only about 3,000 kilometers wide. I suppose for a mission to a place like Mars, 3,000 kilometers of leeway is quite a lot. But Saturn is 120,000 kilometers across, and the main ring system extends another 60,000 kilometers or so above Saturn; Cassini would have to do an orbital maneuver to majorly drop its periapsis (closest approach point) to right in between the planet and its rings, leaping over the main ring system in the process. The idea seems totally crazy.
Folks, the gap between Saturn and the D ring is only about 3,000 kilometers wide. I suppose for a mission to a place like Mars, 3,000 kilometers of leeway is quite a lot. But Saturn is 120,000 kilometers across, and the main ring system extends another 60,000 kilometers or so above Saturn; Cassini would have to do an orbital maneuver to majorly drop its periapsis (closest approach point) to right in between the planet and its rings, leaping over the main ring system in the process. The idea seems totally crazy.
― Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 13 April 2008 02:30 (fifteen years ago) link
Crazy... and AWESOME
― Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved, Sunday, 13 April 2008 02:49 (fifteen years ago) link
That needs to happen. (Like they've got anything to lose!)
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 14 April 2008 05:04 (fifteen years ago) link
god that would be incredible
― strgn, Monday, 14 April 2008 05:55 (fifteen years ago) link
beautiful thread btw
Go for another two years
The US space agency (Nasa) has extended the international Cassini-Huygens mission by two years.The unmanned Cassini-Huygens spacecraft entered orbit around Saturn in 2004 on a mission that was supposed to come to an end in July this year.The two-year mission extension will encompass some 60 extra orbits of Saturn and more flybys of its moons. These will include 26 flybys of Titan - its biggest moon - seven of Enceladus, and one each of Dione, Rhea and Helene
The unmanned Cassini-Huygens spacecraft entered orbit around Saturn in 2004 on a mission that was supposed to come to an end in July this year.
The two-year mission extension will encompass some 60 extra orbits of Saturn and more flybys of its moons. These will include 26 flybys of Titan - its biggest moon - seven of Enceladus, and one each of Dione, Rhea and Helene
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 17:06 (fifteen years ago) link
Looking for life in Enceladusβ plume
Now in press at Astrobiology is a look at the possibilities of life on Enceladus that holds out hope for detecting biomarkers with data gathered during a Cassini flyby. Thatβs an exciting possibility, depending as it does not on an orbiter or lander mission from an indefinite future but on equipment weβve currently got in Saturn space. And the Enceladus picture remains fascinating because of the possibility that some microbial systems on Earth that operate far beneath the surface may offer examples of how life could evolve on a cold and distant moon of Saturn.Weβve already found a dozen icy particle jets coming out of Enceladusβ south polar regions, all pumping material into a plume that extends for thousands of kilometers. A 2005 Cassini flyby revealed, among other things, water vapor, methane and simple organic compounds, even as other Cassini instrumentation showed the moonβs south polar region to be anomalously warm. If there is liquid water under the south polar region, could life have evolved there? If so, the paper raises the possibility that methane may be a biomarker. For that matter, could life have come there from elsewhere? The paper argues both are possible:
Weβve already found a dozen icy particle jets coming out of Enceladusβ south polar regions, all pumping material into a plume that extends for thousands of kilometers. A 2005 Cassini flyby revealed, among other things, water vapor, methane and simple organic compounds, even as other Cassini instrumentation showed the moonβs south polar region to be anomalously warm. If there is liquid water under the south polar region, could life have evolved there? If so, the paper raises the possibility that methane may be a biomarker. For that matter, could life have come there from elsewhere? The paper argues both are possible:
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 16 July 2008 20:39 (fifteen years ago) link
Also, http://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 16 July 2008 21:48 (fifteen years ago) link
TWITTER HAS GONE TOO FAR
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 16 July 2008 21:50 (fifteen years ago) link
Lakes on Titan!
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 31 July 2008 16:16 (fifteen years ago) link
awesome we can go hydrocarbon-skiing.
― Jarlrmai, Thursday, 31 July 2008 16:26 (fifteen years ago) link
Cassini images shadows cast by thousands of ring boulders and particles
http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/saturn-shadow-crop.jpg
― Carroll Shelby Downard (Elvis Telecom), Monday, 13 April 2009 23:16 (fourteen years ago) link
That is so way cool. Thanks!
― James Morrison, Tuesday, 14 April 2009 03:55 (fourteen years ago) link
For any London ILXors or folks visiting, great looking exhibition of Cassini images at the Royal Observatory:
Visions of Saturn
― Bill A, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 13:47 (fourteen years ago) link
Stronger hints of an ocean inside Enceladus
PASADENA, Calif. -- For the first time, scientists working on NASA's Cassini mission have detected sodium salts in ice grains of Saturn's outermost ring. Detecting salty ice indicates that Saturn's moon Enceladus, which primarily replenishes the ring with material from discharging jets, could harbor a reservoir of liquid water -- perhaps an ocean -- beneath its surface.Cassini discovered the water-ice jets in 2005 on Enceladus. These jets expel tiny ice grains and vapor, some of which escape the moon's gravity and form Saturn's outermost ring. Cassini's cosmic dust analyzer has examined the composition of those grains and found salt within them."We believe that the salty minerals deep inside Enceladus washed out from rock at the bottom of a liquid layer," said Frank Postberg, Cassini scientist for the cosmic dust analyzer at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany. Postberg is lead author of a study that appears in the June 25 issue of the journal Nature.Scientists on Cassini's cosmic dust detector team conclude that liquid water must be present because it is the only way to dissolve the significant amounts of minerals that would account for the levels of salt detected. The process of sublimation, the mechanism by which vapor is released directly from solid ice in the crust, cannot account for the presence of salt.
Cassini discovered the water-ice jets in 2005 on Enceladus. These jets expel tiny ice grains and vapor, some of which escape the moon's gravity and form Saturn's outermost ring. Cassini's cosmic dust analyzer has examined the composition of those grains and found salt within them.
"We believe that the salty minerals deep inside Enceladus washed out from rock at the bottom of a liquid layer," said Frank Postberg, Cassini scientist for the cosmic dust analyzer at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany. Postberg is lead author of a study that appears in the June 25 issue of the journal Nature.
Scientists on Cassini's cosmic dust detector team conclude that liquid water must be present because it is the only way to dissolve the significant amounts of minerals that would account for the levels of salt detected. The process of sublimation, the mechanism by which vapor is released directly from solid ice in the crust, cannot account for the presence of salt.
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 21:52 (fourteen years ago) link
Plains of Titan to be Named for Dune novels
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 5 August 2009 06:46 (fourteen years ago) link
The US Geological Survey Astrogeology Science Center announced the first plain or "planitia" given a name will be designated as Chusuk Planitia. Chusuk was a planet from the Dune series, known for its musical instruments.
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/dune/images/thumb/2/26/Baliset.jpg/180px-Baliset.jpg
― weatheringdaleson, Wednesday, 5 August 2009 07:23 (fourteen years ago) link
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/files/2009/08/cassini_fring_punch.jpg
Weird.
This image, taken as Saturn approaches its August 2009 equinox, shows a shadow being cast by a narrow, vertically extended feature in the F ring.Imaging scientists are working to understand the origin of structures such as this one, but they think this image may show the shadow of an object on an inclined orbit which has punched through the F ring and dragged material along in its path.
Imaging scientists are working to understand the origin of structures such as this one, but they think this image may show the shadow of an object on an inclined orbit which has punched through the F ring and dragged material along in its path.
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 10 August 2009 18:08 (fourteen years ago) link
Must be escapees from the prison colony.
― Nate Carson, Monday, 10 August 2009 20:57 (fourteen years ago) link
Cassini made it's closest pass to Enceladus yet over the weekend and the pictures are knocking me out of my tree. Raw image download.
If you can only look at one, make it this one
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 3 November 2009 02:24 (fourteen years ago) link
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS54/N00145397.jpg
YES
― the jun togawa of farting (βabies), Tuesday, 3 November 2009 02:28 (fourteen years ago) link
Ummm, WOW!
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA12481-br500.jpg
Reflection of Sunlight off Titan LakeDecember 17, 2009 Full-Res: PIA12481This image shows the first flash of sunlight reflected off a lake on Saturnβs moon Titan. The glint off a mirror-like surface is known as a specular reflection. This kind of glint was detected by the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIMS) on NASAβs Cassini spacecraft on July 8, 2009. It confirmed the presence of liquid in the moonβs northern hemisphere, where lakes are more numerous and larger than those in the southern hemisphere. Scientists using VIMS had confirmed the presence of liquid in Ontario Lacus, the largest lake in the southern hemisphere, in 2008.The northern hemisphere was shrouded in darkness for nearly 15 years, but the sun began to illuminate the area again as it approached its spring equinox in August 2009. VIMS was able to detect the glint as the viewing geometry changed. Titanβs hazy atmosphere also scatters and absorbs many wavelengths of light, including most of the visible light spectrum. But the VIMS instrument enabled scientists to look for the glint in infrared wavelengths that were able to penetrate through the moonβs atmosphere. This image was created using wavelengths of light in the 5 micron range.By comparing the new image to radar and near-infrared light images acquired from 2006 to 2008, Cassini scientists were able to correlate the reflection to the southern shoreline of a Titan lake called Kraken Mare. The sprawling Kraken Mare covers about 400,000 square kilometers (150,000 square miles). The reflection appeared to come from a part of the lake around 71 degrees north latitude and 337 degrees west latitude.
This image shows the first flash of sunlight reflected off a lake on Saturnβs moon Titan. The glint off a mirror-like surface is known as a specular reflection. This kind of glint was detected by the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIMS) on NASAβs Cassini spacecraft on July 8, 2009. It confirmed the presence of liquid in the moonβs northern hemisphere, where lakes are more numerous and larger than those in the southern hemisphere. Scientists using VIMS had confirmed the presence of liquid in Ontario Lacus, the largest lake in the southern hemisphere, in 2008.
The northern hemisphere was shrouded in darkness for nearly 15 years, but the sun began to illuminate the area again as it approached its spring equinox in August 2009. VIMS was able to detect the glint as the viewing geometry changed. Titanβs hazy atmosphere also scatters and absorbs many wavelengths of light, including most of the visible light spectrum. But the VIMS instrument enabled scientists to look for the glint in infrared wavelengths that were able to penetrate through the moonβs atmosphere. This image was created using wavelengths of light in the 5 micron range.
By comparing the new image to radar and near-infrared light images acquired from 2006 to 2008, Cassini scientists were able to correlate the reflection to the southern shoreline of a Titan lake called Kraken Mare. The sprawling Kraken Mare covers about 400,000 square kilometers (150,000 square miles). The reflection appeared to come from a part of the lake around 71 degrees north latitude and 337 degrees west latitude.
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 17 December 2009 21:39 (fourteen years ago) link
Insane. (And great.)
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 17 December 2009 22:12 (fourteen years ago) link
Wow--that is so amazing. Now we just need some methane-breathing Titan native wildlife to start flying around visibly in the atmosphere.
― Attention please, a child has been lost in the tunnel of goats. (James Morrison), Thursday, 17 December 2009 22:31 (fourteen years ago) link
I know this is stating the obvious, but the fact that this little probe is flying round out there, taking these amazing shots, and it's all being uploaded straight on the net for us to gawk at---there's not an aspect of this that doesn't blow my mind.
― Attention please, a child has been lost in the tunnel of goats. (James Morrison), Thursday, 17 December 2009 22:57 (fourteen years ago) link
Britain cut all its funding for this mission yesterday : (
― caek, Thursday, 17 December 2009 23:22 (fourteen years ago) link
Srsly, that kind of fucking short-sighted idiocy is the *true* Broken Britain that the tossers who make these decisions likely rail against.
Back to the positive - amazing new pictures, this thread continues to be wholeheartedly For The Ages.
― Bill A, Thursday, 17 December 2009 23:33 (fourteen years ago) link
Britain clobbered it's funding for all of astronomy and physics yesterday. http://www.saveastronomy.org.uk/ is tracking the damage. (This is probably worth a different thread. Back to the amazing Saturn info)
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 18 December 2009 00:46 (fourteen years ago) link
Just realized that I forgot to post this
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/12/15/science/15obmoon_ready/articleInline.jpg
December 15, 2009Solving a Tonal Mystery in Orbit Around SaturnBy HENRY FOUNTAINResearchers have solved what may be the oldest mystery in planetary science: the two-tone surface of Saturnβs moon Iapetus.The odd feature β the moonβs trailing side is about 10 times brighter than its leading side β has been a mystery since it was first observed by Giovanni Cassini in 1671. In two papers published online by Science, researchers have unraveled the mystery, using images and data from instruments aboard the spacecraft named for Cassini.The studies confirm an earlier idea that dust, most likely from another of Saturnβs moons, falls on the leading side of Iapetus as it orbits the planet.βItβs just like a motorcyclist, who only gets the flies on the leading side of the helmet rather than the trailing side,β said Tillmann Denk of the Free University of Berlin, an author with John R. Spencer of the Southwest Research Institute of one of the papers and lead author of the other.But the pattern of the surface features β the dark area extends to the trailing side at the equator, for example β is not fully explained by the deposition dust. Rather, the researchers say, the reason has a lot to do with the moonβs rotation on its axis, which takes 80 earth days.Such a slow rotation (βmiddayβ lasts for a couple of weeks) allows the distant Sun to warm the dark dust-covered areas enough that water ice becomes vapor.The vapor migrates elsewhere, freezing to ice again when it reaches colder areas. The areas where the ice was lost become darker, and those that gained ice become brighter.
Researchers have solved what may be the oldest mystery in planetary science: the two-tone surface of Saturnβs moon Iapetus.
The odd feature β the moonβs trailing side is about 10 times brighter than its leading side β has been a mystery since it was first observed by Giovanni Cassini in 1671. In two papers published online by Science, researchers have unraveled the mystery, using images and data from instruments aboard the spacecraft named for Cassini.
The studies confirm an earlier idea that dust, most likely from another of Saturnβs moons, falls on the leading side of Iapetus as it orbits the planet.
βItβs just like a motorcyclist, who only gets the flies on the leading side of the helmet rather than the trailing side,β said Tillmann Denk of the Free University of Berlin, an author with John R. Spencer of the Southwest Research Institute of one of the papers and lead author of the other.
But the pattern of the surface features β the dark area extends to the trailing side at the equator, for example β is not fully explained by the deposition dust. Rather, the researchers say, the reason has a lot to do with the moonβs rotation on its axis, which takes 80 earth days.
Such a slow rotation (βmiddayβ lasts for a couple of weeks) allows the distant Sun to warm the dark dust-covered areas enough that water ice becomes vapor.
The vapor migrates elsewhere, freezing to ice again when it reaches colder areas. The areas where the ice was lost become darker, and those that gained ice become brighter.
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 18 December 2009 01:06 (fourteen years ago) link
Just as FYI, put feed://ciclops.org/rssfeed.php into your RSS feed reader for daily Saturn images and updates on what's going on.
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 18 December 2009 08:59 (fourteen years ago) link
Being kind of amazed by these photos of the rings:http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/imagedetails/index.cfm?imageId=3774http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/imagedetails/index.cfm?imageId=3779
I mean, I've always grown up seeing paintings and raytracings and so on which look exactly like that, but this time you have to stop and go, actually, this is real, this is a photo.
― brett favre vs bernard fevre, fite (a passing spacecadet), Friday, 18 December 2009 09:20 (fourteen years ago) link
Titan's haze and clouds are well-known but there's fog now too
Astronomers say the presence of fog provides the first direct evidence for the exchange of material between the surface and the atmosphere, and thus of an active hydrological cycle, which previously had only been known to exist on Earth.The discovery was made using data from the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) onboard the Cassini spacecraft, which has been observing Saturn's system for the past five years. The VIMS instrument provides "hyperspectral" imaging, covering a large swath of the visible and infrared spectrum. Researchers investigated all Cassini data collected over the moon's south pole from October 2006 through March 2007, and filtered the data to separate out features occurring at different depths in the atmosphere, ranging from 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) to .25 kilometers (820 feet) above the surface. Using other filters, they homed in on "bright" features caused by the scattering of light off small particlesβsuch as the methane droplets present in clouds.In this way, they isolated clouds located about 750 meters (less than a half-mile) above the ground. These clouds did not extend into the higher altitudesβinto the moon's troposphere, where regular clouds form. In other words, says Brown, they had found fog."Fogβor clouds, or dew, or condensation in generalβcan form whenever air reaches about 100 percent humidity," Brown says. "There are two ways to get there. The first is obvious: add water (on Earth) or methane (on Titan) to the surrounding air. The second is much more common: make the air colder so it can hold less water (or liquid methane), and all of that excess needs to condense."On Earth, this is the most common method of making fog, Brown says. "That fog you often see at sunrise hugging the ground is caused by ground-level air cooling overnight, to the point where it cannot hang onto its water. As the sun rises and the air heats, the fog goes away."Similarly, fog can form when wet air passes over cold ground; as the air cools, the water condenses. And mountain fog occurs when air gets pushed up the side of a mountain and cools, causing the water to condense.However, none of these mechanisms work on Titan.The reason is that Titan's muggy atmosphere takes a notoriously long time to cool (or warm). "If you were to turn the sun totally off, Titan's atmosphere would still take something like 100 years to cool down," Brown says. "Even the coldest parts of the surface are much too warm to ever cause fog to condense."Mountain fog is also out of the question, he adds. "A Titanian mountain would have to be about 15,000 feet high before the air would get cold enough to condense," he says. And yet the tallest mountains the moon could possibly carry (because of its fragile, icy crust) would be no more than 3000 feet high.The only possible way to make Titanian fog, then, is to add humidity to the air. And the only way to do that, Brown says, is by evaporating liquidβin this case, methane, the most common hydrocarbon on the moon, which exists in solid, liquid, and gaseous forms.Brown notes that evaporating methane on Titan "means it must have rained, and rain means streams and pools and erosion and geology. The presence of fog on Titan proves, for the first time, that the moon has a currently active methane hydrological cycle."The presence of fog also proves that the moon must be dotted with methane pools, Brown says. That's because any ground-level air, after becoming 100 percent humid and turning into fog, would instantly rise up into the atmosphere like a giant cumulus cloud. "The only way to make the fog stick around on the ground is to both add humidity and cool the air just a little," he explains. "The way to cool the air just a little is to have it in contact with something cold, like a pool of evaporating liquid methane."
The discovery was made using data from the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) onboard the Cassini spacecraft, which has been observing Saturn's system for the past five years. The VIMS instrument provides "hyperspectral" imaging, covering a large swath of the visible and infrared spectrum.
Researchers investigated all Cassini data collected over the moon's south pole from October 2006 through March 2007, and filtered the data to separate out features occurring at different depths in the atmosphere, ranging from 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) to .25 kilometers (820 feet) above the surface. Using other filters, they homed in on "bright" features caused by the scattering of light off small particlesβsuch as the methane droplets present in clouds.
In this way, they isolated clouds located about 750 meters (less than a half-mile) above the ground. These clouds did not extend into the higher altitudesβinto the moon's troposphere, where regular clouds form. In other words, says Brown, they had found fog.
"Fogβor clouds, or dew, or condensation in generalβcan form whenever air reaches about 100 percent humidity," Brown says. "There are two ways to get there. The first is obvious: add water (on Earth) or methane (on Titan) to the surrounding air. The second is much more common: make the air colder so it can hold less water (or liquid methane), and all of that excess needs to condense."
On Earth, this is the most common method of making fog, Brown says. "That fog you often see at sunrise hugging the ground is caused by ground-level air cooling overnight, to the point where it cannot hang onto its water. As the sun rises and the air heats, the fog goes away."
Similarly, fog can form when wet air passes over cold ground; as the air cools, the water condenses. And mountain fog occurs when air gets pushed up the side of a mountain and cools, causing the water to condense.
However, none of these mechanisms work on Titan.
The reason is that Titan's muggy atmosphere takes a notoriously long time to cool (or warm). "If you were to turn the sun totally off, Titan's atmosphere would still take something like 100 years to cool down," Brown says. "Even the coldest parts of the surface are much too warm to ever cause fog to condense."
Mountain fog is also out of the question, he adds. "A Titanian mountain would have to be about 15,000 feet high before the air would get cold enough to condense," he says. And yet the tallest mountains the moon could possibly carry (because of its fragile, icy crust) would be no more than 3000 feet high.
The only possible way to make Titanian fog, then, is to add humidity to the air. And the only way to do that, Brown says, is by evaporating liquidβin this case, methane, the most common hydrocarbon on the moon, which exists in solid, liquid, and gaseous forms.
Brown notes that evaporating methane on Titan "means it must have rained, and rain means streams and pools and erosion and geology. The presence of fog on Titan proves, for the first time, that the moon has a currently active methane hydrological cycle."
The presence of fog also proves that the moon must be dotted with methane pools, Brown says. That's because any ground-level air, after becoming 100 percent humid and turning into fog, would instantly rise up into the atmosphere like a giant cumulus cloud. "The only way to make the fog stick around on the ground is to both add humidity and cool the air just a little," he explains. "The way to cool the air just a little is to have it in contact with something cold, like a pool of evaporating liquid methane."
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 22 December 2009 03:36 (fourteen years ago) link
Meet Prometheus the space yam
http://www.planetary.org/image/cassini_prometheus_rgb-over-stacked-clear_20091226_lg.png
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 28 December 2009 05:41 (fourteen years ago) link
So remember those spokes in the B-ring of Saturn? They're 100% water ice
http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/spokes-b-ring-2.jpg
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 1 February 2010 00:24 (fourteen years ago) link
A nicely banal answer (not everything needs to be mysterious!)
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 1 February 2010 01:42 (fourteen years ago) link
And Cassini is go to keep on going (potentially through 2017)
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 3 February 2010 19:57 (fourteen years ago) link
Visiting the Death Star
http://www.planetary.org/image/cassini_mimas_color_hurcewicz_lg.jpg
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 16 February 2010 23:16 (fourteen years ago) link
No trench no credibility
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 16 February 2010 23:19 (fourteen years ago) link
Lightning spotted visually in Saturn's atmosphere
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/cassini/20100414/pia12575-browse.jpg
(there's a movie at the NASA link)
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 14 April 2010 20:02 (thirteen years ago) link
The Big Picture goes to Saturn: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/checking_in_on_saturn.html
― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 22 May 2010 01:33 (thirteen years ago) link
does anybody know when NASA's gonna probe uranus?
― Face Book (dyao), Saturday, 22 May 2010 01:44 (thirteen years ago) link
seriously, though
Saturn's tiny moon Helene, seen here by Cassini on March 03, 2010. Discovered in 1980, Helene is only 35 km (28 mi) wide. (NASA/JPL) #
the fact that we can discover something so small floating in space is mind boggling.
― Face Book (dyao), Saturday, 22 May 2010 01:51 (thirteen years ago) link
I also love this:
Cassini scientists were able to correlate the reflection to the southern shoreline of a Titan lake called Kraken Mare. The sprawling Kraken Mare covers about 400,000 sq km (150,000 sq mi).
kraken mare!
― Face Book (dyao), Saturday, 22 May 2010 01:56 (thirteen years ago) link
Not from Cassini, but related: Image of the Day: Saturn's Newly Discovered Immense Outer Ring
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope discovered an enormous ring around Saturn -- by far the largest of the giant planet's many rings. The belt lies at the far reaches of the Saturnian system, with an orbit tilted 27 degrees from the main ring plane. The bulk of its material starts about six million kilometers (3.7 million miles) away from the planet and extends outward roughly another 12 million kilometers (7.4 million miles). One of Saturn's farthest moons, Phoebe, circles within the newfound ring, and is likely the source of its material.Saturn's newest halo is thick, too -- its vertical height is about 20 times the diameter of the planet. It would take about one billion Earths stacked together to fill the ring."This is one supersized ring," said Anne Verbiscer, an astronomer at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. "If you could see the ring, it would span the width of two full moons' worth of sky, one on either side of Saturn." The ring itself is tenuous, made up of a thin array of ice and dust particles. Spitzer's infrared eyes were able to spot the glow of the band's cool dust. The telescope, launched in 2003, is currently 107 million kilometers (66 million miles) from Earth in orbit around the sun.The discovery may help solve an age-old riddle of one of Saturn's moons. Iapetus has a strange appearance -- one side is bright and the other is really dark, in a pattern that resembles the yin-yang symbol. The astronomer Giovanni Cassini first spotted the moon in 1671, and years later figured out it has a dark side, now named Cassini Regio in his honor. A stunning picture of Iapetus taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft is online http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08384 .Saturn's newest addition could explain how Cassini Regio came to be. The ring is circling in the same direction as Phoebe, while Iapetus, the other rings and most of Saturn's moons are all going the opposite way. According to the scientists, some of the dark and dusty material from the outer ring moves inward toward Iapetus, slamming the icy moon like bugs on a windshield."Astronomers have long suspected that there is a connection between Saturn's outer moon Phoebe and the dark material on Iapetus," said Hamilton. "This new ring provides convincing evidence of that relationship."The ring would be difficult to see with visible-light telescopes. Its particles are diffuse and may even extend beyond the bulk of the ring material all the way in to Saturn and all the way out to interplanetary space. The relatively small numbers of particles in the ring wouldn't reflect much visible light, especially out at Saturn where sunlight is weak."The particles are so far apart that if you were to stand in the ring, you wouldn't even know it," said Verbiscer.Spitzer was able to sense the glow of the cool dust, which is only about 80 Kelvin (minus 316 degrees Fahrenheit). Cool objects shine with infrared, or thermal radiation; for example, even a cup of ice cream is blazing with infrared light. "By focusing on the glow of the ring's cool dust, Spitzer made it easy to find," said Verbiscer.
Saturn's newest halo is thick, too -- its vertical height is about 20 times the diameter of the planet. It would take about one billion Earths stacked together to fill the ring.
"This is one supersized ring," said Anne Verbiscer, an astronomer at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. "If you could see the ring, it would span the width of two full moons' worth of sky, one on either side of Saturn."
The ring itself is tenuous, made up of a thin array of ice and dust particles. Spitzer's infrared eyes were able to spot the glow of the band's cool dust. The telescope, launched in 2003, is currently 107 million kilometers (66 million miles) from Earth in orbit around the sun.
The discovery may help solve an age-old riddle of one of Saturn's moons. Iapetus has a strange appearance -- one side is bright and the other is really dark, in a pattern that resembles the yin-yang symbol. The astronomer Giovanni Cassini first spotted the moon in 1671, and years later figured out it has a dark side, now named Cassini Regio in his honor. A stunning picture of Iapetus taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft is online http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08384 .
Saturn's newest addition could explain how Cassini Regio came to be. The ring is circling in the same direction as Phoebe, while Iapetus, the other rings and most of Saturn's moons are all going the opposite way. According to the scientists, some of the dark and dusty material from the outer ring moves inward toward Iapetus, slamming the icy moon like bugs on a windshield.
"Astronomers have long suspected that there is a connection between Saturn's outer moon Phoebe and the dark material on Iapetus," said Hamilton. "This new ring provides convincing evidence of that relationship."
The ring would be difficult to see with visible-light telescopes. Its particles are diffuse and may even extend beyond the bulk of the ring material all the way in to Saturn and all the way out to interplanetary space. The relatively small numbers of particles in the ring wouldn't reflect much visible light, especially out at Saturn where sunlight is weak.
"The particles are so far apart that if you were to stand in the ring, you wouldn't even know it," said Verbiscer.
Spitzer was able to sense the glow of the cool dust, which is only about 80 Kelvin (minus 316 degrees Fahrenheit). Cool objects shine with infrared, or thermal radiation; for example, even a cup of ice cream is blazing with infrared light. "By focusing on the glow of the ring's cool dust, Spitzer made it easy to find," said Verbiscer.
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/.a/6a00d8341bf7f753ef0134838e3391970c-pi
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 9 June 2010 23:33 (thirteen years ago) link
so cool!
― Attention please, a child has been lost in the tunnel of goats. (James Morrison), Thursday, 10 June 2010 03:12 (thirteen years ago) link
yup 80 kelvin
― Jarlrmai, Thursday, 10 June 2010 11:46 (thirteen years ago) link
Springtime on Titan
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/cassini/20100921/pia13400-640.jpg
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 23 September 2010 01:59 (thirteen years ago) link
Saturn's rings are basically a giant vinyl LP that acts like a galaxy
http://s3.amazonaws.com/ciclops_ir_2010/6549_15847_1.jpg
― Stockhausen's Helicopter Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Wednesday, 3 November 2010 00:12 (thirteen years ago) link
http://s3.amazonaws.com/ciclops_ir_2010/6480_15489_1.jpg
― Stockhausen's Helicopter Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Wednesday, 3 November 2010 00:13 (thirteen years ago) link
Enceladus Fissures Keep Getting Warmer and More Complex
As Cassini scientists await the data from todayβs flyby of Enceladus, images and data from August of this year have provided more insight into the active fissures on the icy moonβs south polar region. These geyser-spewing fractures are warmer and more complicated than previously thought.βThe exquisite resolution obtained on one segment of the Damascus fracture β one of the most active regions within the south polar terrain β has revealed a surface temperature reaching a staggering 190 Kelvin, or 120 degrees below zero Fahrenheit,β said Cassini imaging team lead Carolyn Porco, in an email announcing the new images. βFar from the fractures, the temperature of the south polar terrain dips as low as 52 Kelvin, or 365 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.βPorco said that what this means is that a phenomenal amount of heat is emerging from the fractures which are βundoubtedly the result of the tidal flexing of Enceladus brought about by its orbital resonance with Dione. However, details of this heating process are still unclear and are being studied at this very moment.β
βThe exquisite resolution obtained on one segment of the Damascus fracture β one of the most active regions within the south polar terrain β has revealed a surface temperature reaching a staggering 190 Kelvin, or 120 degrees below zero Fahrenheit,β said Cassini imaging team lead Carolyn Porco, in an email announcing the new images. βFar from the fractures, the temperature of the south polar terrain dips as low as 52 Kelvin, or 365 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.β
Porco said that what this means is that a phenomenal amount of heat is emerging from the fractures which are βundoubtedly the result of the tidal flexing of Enceladus brought about by its orbital resonance with Dione. However, details of this heating process are still unclear and are being studied at this very moment.β
By way of comparison, Antarctica at it's coldest is about -120F. However, these kinds of surface temperatures at the distance of Saturn is pretty special.
― Stockhausen's Ekranoplan Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Wednesday, 1 December 2010 00:50 (thirteen years ago) link
No CGI used in this fly-by video of Saturn - it's made up entirely of images
― Stockhausen's Ekranoplan Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Wednesday, 16 March 2011 03:55 (thirteen years ago) link
this is The Thread That Keeps On Giving. Great work again, ET.
― Bill A, Wednesday, 16 March 2011 10:46 (thirteen years ago) link
wow!!
― Morty Maxwell (crΓΌt), Wednesday, 16 March 2011 11:00 (thirteen years ago) link
There's a nice interview with the guy who did it here.http://www.outsideinthemovie.com/filmmaker/
― I'm sorry, I did not create the cosmos, I merely explain it. (Ned Trifle II), Wednesday, 16 March 2011 11:02 (thirteen years ago) link
Also additional vid on how he did some of it.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4ghSOjlc6Y
― I'm sorry, I did not create the cosmos, I merely explain it. (Ned Trifle II), Wednesday, 16 March 2011 11:07 (thirteen years ago) link
Holy fuck, that's just beautiful.
― the most cuddlesome bug that ever was borned (James Morrison), Wednesday, 16 March 2011 22:54 (thirteen years ago) link
Cassiniqatsi
(sorry about the name... couldn't help myself. anyway, go watch it!)
― Stockhausen's Ekranoplan Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Saturday, 11 June 2011 00:45 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-190
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Cassini spacecraft has discovered the best evidence yet for a large-scale saltwater reservoir beneath the icy crust of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The data came from the spacecraft's direct analysis of salt-rich ice grains close to the jets ejected from the moon. Data from Cassini's cosmic dust analyzer show the grains expelled from fissures, known as tiger stripes, are relatively small and predominantly low in salt far away from the moon. But closer to the moon's surface, Cassini found that relatively large grains rich with sodium and potassium dominate the plumes. The salt-rich particles have an "ocean-like" composition and indicate that most, if not all, of the expelled ice and water vapor comes from the evaporation of liquid salt water. The findings appear in this week's issue of the journal Nature."There currently is no plausible way to produce a steady outflow of salt-rich grains from solid ice across all the tiger stripes other than salt water under Enceladus's icy surface," said Frank Postberg, a Cassini team scientist at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and the lead author on the paper. When water freezes, the salt is squeezed out, leaving pure water ice behind. If the plumes emanated from ice, they should have very little salt in them.
Data from Cassini's cosmic dust analyzer show the grains expelled from fissures, known as tiger stripes, are relatively small and predominantly low in salt far away from the moon. But closer to the moon's surface, Cassini found that relatively large grains rich with sodium and potassium dominate the plumes. The salt-rich particles have an "ocean-like" composition and indicate that most, if not all, of the expelled ice and water vapor comes from the evaporation of liquid salt water. The findings appear in this week's issue of the journal Nature.
"There currently is no plausible way to produce a steady outflow of salt-rich grains from solid ice across all the tiger stripes other than salt water under Enceladus's icy surface," said Frank Postberg, a Cassini team scientist at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and the lead author on the paper. When water freezes, the salt is squeezed out, leaving pure water ice behind. If the plumes emanated from ice, they should have very little salt in them.
― Stockhausen's Ekranoplan Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Thursday, 23 June 2011 01:15 (twelve years ago) link
I love me that probe.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 23 June 2011 01:16 (twelve years ago) link
are they investigating the whole enceladus?
― StanM, Thursday, 23 June 2011 02:26 (twelve years ago) link
This recent picture of Enceladus is knocking me out.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6193/6209087320_89518e324f_z.jpg
The geyser jets are backlit by the sun and Enceladus here is lit by Saturn-shine.
― Stockhausen's Ekranoplan Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 01:34 (twelve years ago) link
wow
― corey, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 01:45 (twelve years ago) link
Crazy great.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 01:58 (twelve years ago) link
cool. but is that, like, a shit load of trucks coming towards us over the horizon?
― Summer Slam! (Ste), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 08:24 (twelve years ago) link
Read the end of Elvis T's comment again...
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 12:36 (twelve years ago) link
Too late, I can only think of Sam Rockwell mining Enceladus...
― willem, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 13:23 (twelve years ago) link
β Summer Slam! (Ste), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 09:24 (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
otm looks like burning man
― caek, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 13:28 (twelve years ago) link
Dione has a very very thin oxygen atmosphere
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA07691-br500.jpg
― Stockhausen's Ekranoplan Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Wednesday, 7 March 2012 05:28 (twelve years ago) link
Time to migrate.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 05:37 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/wp-content/gallery/titan-seasons/titan-saturn-moon-north-pole-space-planetary-science.jpg
Saturnβs Largest Moon Seen in Unprecedented Detail
― Stockhausen's Ekranoplan Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Sunday, 11 March 2012 07:31 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/iapetus-landslides-580x288.jpg
Subject line says it all: Massive Ice Avalanches on Iapetus
― Reality Check Cashing Services (Elvis Telecom), Friday, 23 March 2012 23:56 (eleven years ago) link
What things might sound like on Titan (the waterfall and splashdown sounds are great!)
― Reality Check Cashing Services (Elvis Telecom), Tuesday, 10 April 2012 09:54 (eleven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNm6ExSSitU
― Reality Check Cashing Services (Elvis Telecom), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 00:22 (eleven years ago) link
the people i work with are v upset because this thing got selected by a science panel instead of an x-ray telescope, but tbh i think it looks awesome
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=107
― caek, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 00:29 (eleven years ago) link
some more links
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17773383andyxl.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/x-ray-astronomy-crunch/andyxl.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/turbulence-in-the-gravy-waves/
― caek, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 00:33 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/3359901087_4c82b07365_o-580x580.jpg
That's no moon, that's a Kuiper Belt Object
Saturnβs curious moon Phoebe features a heavily-cratered shape and orbits the ringed planet backwards at a considerable distance of over 8 million miles (12.8 million km). According to recent news from the Cassini mission Phoebe may actually be a Kuiper Belt object, having more in common with planets than it does with any of Saturnβs other satellites.132 miles (212 km) in diameter, Phoebe is the largest of Saturnβs irregular moons β a cloud of small, rocky worlds held in distant orbits at highly inclined paths. Its backwards (retrograde) motion around Saturn and dense composition are dead giveaways that it didnβt form in situ within the Saturnian system, but rather was captured at some point when it strayed too close to the gas giant.In fact itβs now thought that Phoebe may be a remnant from the formation of the Solar System β a planetesimal β with its own unique history predating its adoption into Saturnβs extended family of moons.
132 miles (212 km) in diameter, Phoebe is the largest of Saturnβs irregular moons β a cloud of small, rocky worlds held in distant orbits at highly inclined paths. Its backwards (retrograde) motion around Saturn and dense composition are dead giveaways that it didnβt form in situ within the Saturnian system, but rather was captured at some point when it strayed too close to the gas giant.
In fact itβs now thought that Phoebe may be a remnant from the formation of the Solar System β a planetesimal β with its own unique history predating its adoption into Saturnβs extended family of moons.
― Reality Check Cashing Services (Elvis Telecom), Monday, 30 April 2012 02:57 (eleven years ago) link
juice confirmed: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2012/may/02/juice-picked-for-launch. launch in 2022, reaches jupiters moons in 2030, so perhaps a bit early to change the thread title, but it's going to be rad.
― caek, Thursday, 3 May 2012 10:11 (eleven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srLlka2C7FM
― it was a dark and stormy genitals. (Phil D.), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 13:19 (eleven years ago) link
Looking at landslides on Iapetus: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/20121001-iapetus-sturzstroms.html
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 3 October 2012 08:11 (eleven years ago) link
Saturn's North Polar Vortex
https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/images/6-saturn/2012/20121127_N00198348_filtered_f840.jpg
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 28 November 2012 21:53 (eleven years ago) link
The vortex itself is just a small feature at the center of the northern hexagon
https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/images/6-saturn/2012/20121127_W00077190_f840.jpg
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 28 November 2012 21:54 (eleven years ago) link
Close-up picture is about 3km per pixel - picture-width is about as big as the Moon.
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 28 November 2012 21:55 (eleven years ago) link
Guh at all that. The hexagon! If only Clarke had learned about THAT.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 28 November 2012 21:56 (eleven years ago) link
holy fuck, that's amazing
― ornamental cabbage (James Morrison), Thursday, 29 November 2012 02:06 (eleven years ago) link
Not a Cassini image, just cool space stuff: βOvermassiveβ black hole holds the mass of 17 billion suns: http://theconversation.edu.au/overmassive-black-hole-holds-the-mass-of-17-billion-suns-11066
https://c479107.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/files/18142/area14mp/rqhkdpgd-1354155621.jpg
― ornamental cabbage (James Morrison), Thursday, 29 November 2012 05:03 (eleven years ago) link
O_O at the hexagon
― Tome Cruise (Matt P), Thursday, 29 November 2012 05:15 (eleven years ago) link
I'm totally starting a Hawkwind-esque space rock band called SATURN'S HEXAGON
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 29 November 2012 05:47 (eleven years ago) link
Hawksagon
― nickn, Thursday, 29 November 2012 06:20 (eleven years ago) link
the hexagon does not care, it does not love
― γ (clouds), Thursday, 29 November 2012 13:07 (eleven years ago) link
It's thought to be linked to these radio emmisions.http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07966.html
― Paul McCartney, the Gary Barlow of The Beatles (snoball), Thursday, 29 November 2012 13:14 (eleven years ago) link
Hexagon in color
http://ut-images.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/SaturnHex-RGB-11-28-12-JMajor-580x546.jpg
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 29 November 2012 23:30 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2012/12/Iapetus.jpg
More Iapetus theories
Iapetus, one of Saturnβs weirdest moons, has an enormous equatorial mountain ridge, a spiky belt that rises 12 miles above the moonβs surface. How Iapetus built that belt β the only one of its kind ever observed β has been a persistent conundrum.Now, scientists suggest that a giant impact early in Iapetusβ history knocked the moon around, dramatically slowing its rotation rate and deforming its crust. After 1 million years, Iapetus began to resemble the walnut-shaped satellite it is today: flatter at the poles, and with a ridge extending most of the way around its middle, suggested planetary scientist Gabriel Tobie of Franceβs University of Nantes here at the American Geophysical Union conference Dec. 4.Earlier ideas describing the birth of the Iapetian belt invoke tectonic activity within the moon itself, or the brief presence of a impact-produced satellite β a smaller body that wandered too close to Iapetus and was shredded, briefly forming a ring that disintegrated over the moonβs equator.Tobie and his colleagues simulated the Iapetian early years and came up with a different story. Shortly after it formed, Iapetus spun around itself once every six hours or so. But after about 10 million years of unperturbed rotation, an object between 500 and 650 miles wide zoomed in and face-planted on the moon.The collision disrupted the moonβs rotation rate, immediately slowing it to more than 30 hours per pirouette. Such rapid braking stretched and deformed the moonβs crust, flattening its poles and pinching the ridge around its middle, Tobie demonstrated in a 3-D simulation. βIt is possible for a single impact to change the rotation of Iapetus,β he said, noting a 500-mile-wide crater that could be a scar left over from the collision. βWe can generate a ridge only if the body rotates very, very fast initially.βWhile the theory is intriguing, some scientists at the presentation were skeptical, suggesting that it might not be as easy to despin the moon as suggested, and that the simulation may not have gotten Iapetusβ interior quite right. Another persistent mystery is the fact that the ridge isnβt wrapped all the way around the moon.Like the rest of the theories, this newest idea canβt answer those questions, yet.
Now, scientists suggest that a giant impact early in Iapetusβ history knocked the moon around, dramatically slowing its rotation rate and deforming its crust. After 1 million years, Iapetus began to resemble the walnut-shaped satellite it is today: flatter at the poles, and with a ridge extending most of the way around its middle, suggested planetary scientist Gabriel Tobie of Franceβs University of Nantes here at the American Geophysical Union conference Dec. 4.
Earlier ideas describing the birth of the Iapetian belt invoke tectonic activity within the moon itself, or the brief presence of a impact-produced satellite β a smaller body that wandered too close to Iapetus and was shredded, briefly forming a ring that disintegrated over the moonβs equator.
Tobie and his colleagues simulated the Iapetian early years and came up with a different story. Shortly after it formed, Iapetus spun around itself once every six hours or so. But after about 10 million years of unperturbed rotation, an object between 500 and 650 miles wide zoomed in and face-planted on the moon.
The collision disrupted the moonβs rotation rate, immediately slowing it to more than 30 hours per pirouette. Such rapid braking stretched and deformed the moonβs crust, flattening its poles and pinching the ridge around its middle, Tobie demonstrated in a 3-D simulation. βIt is possible for a single impact to change the rotation of Iapetus,β he said, noting a 500-mile-wide crater that could be a scar left over from the collision. βWe can generate a ridge only if the body rotates very, very fast initially.β
While the theory is intriguing, some scientists at the presentation were skeptical, suggesting that it might not be as easy to despin the moon as suggested, and that the simulation may not have gotten Iapetusβ interior quite right. Another persistent mystery is the fact that the ridge isnβt wrapped all the way around the moon.
Like the rest of the theories, this newest idea canβt answer those questions, yet.
― Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 9 December 2012 03:56 (eleven years ago) link
We got space rivers
http://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2012/11/titan_s_nile_river/12132842-1-eng-GB/Titan_s_Nile_River_small.jpg
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 12 December 2012 22:17 (eleven years ago) link
Not sure where else to put this, but here's a 25-minute tour of the international space station hosted by astronaut Sunita Williams.
http://kottke.org/13/01/a-tour-of-the-international-space-station
― nickn, Sunday, 6 January 2013 04:15 (eleven years ago) link
NASA Probe Observes Meteors Colliding with Saturn's Rings
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/cassini/20130425/pia14938-640.jpg
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 2 May 2013 18:53 (ten years ago) link
Dear god I love this kind of stuff.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 2 May 2013 20:08 (ten years ago) link
would have been cooler if they had caught a meteor colliding with the rings around uranus
― δΉδΉ, Thursday, 2 May 2013 20:57 (ten years ago) link
New pictures of the hexagon and the hexagon's eye.
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/744877main_pia14944-946.jpg
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/744879main_pia14946-946.jpg
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 06:09 (ten years ago) link
Cassini Finds Hints of Activity at Saturn Moon Dione
The north pole of Dione. The feature just left of the terminator at bottom is Janiculum Dorsa, a long, roughly north-south trending ridge.From a distance, most of the Saturnian moon Dione resembles a bland cueball. Thanks to close-up images of a 500-mile-long (800-kilometer-long) mountain on the moon from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, scientists have found more evidence for the idea that Dione was likely active in the past. It could still be active now."A picture is emerging that suggests Dione could be a fossil of the wondrous activity Cassini discovered spraying from Saturn's geyser moon Enceladus or perhaps a weaker copycat Enceladus," said Bonnie Buratti of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., who leads the Cassini science team that studies icy satellites. "There may turn out to be many more active worlds with water out there than we previously thought."Other bodies in the solar system thought to have a subsurface ocean β including Saturn's moons Enceladus and Titan and Jupiter's moon Europa β are among the most geologically active worlds in our solar system. They have been intriguing targets for geologists and scientists looking for the building blocks of life elsewhere in the solar system. The presence of a subsurface ocean at Dione would boost the astrobiological potential of this once-boring iceball.Hints of Dione's activity have recently come from Cassini, which has been exploring the Saturn system since 2004. The spacecraftβs magnetometer has detected a faint particle stream coming from the moon, and images showed evidence for a possible liquid or slushy layer under its rock-hard ice crust. Other Cassini images have also revealed ancient, inactive fractures at Dione similar to those seen at Enceladus that currently spray water ice and organic particles.The mountain examined in the latest paper -- published in March in the journal Icarus -- is called Janiculum Dorsa and ranges in height from about 0.6 to 1.2 miles (1 to 2 kilometers). The moon's crust appears to pucker under this mountain as much as about 0.3 mile (0.5 kilometer).
"A picture is emerging that suggests Dione could be a fossil of the wondrous activity Cassini discovered spraying from Saturn's geyser moon Enceladus or perhaps a weaker copycat Enceladus," said Bonnie Buratti of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., who leads the Cassini science team that studies icy satellites. "There may turn out to be many more active worlds with water out there than we previously thought."
Other bodies in the solar system thought to have a subsurface ocean β including Saturn's moons Enceladus and Titan and Jupiter's moon Europa β are among the most geologically active worlds in our solar system. They have been intriguing targets for geologists and scientists looking for the building blocks of life elsewhere in the solar system. The presence of a subsurface ocean at Dione would boost the astrobiological potential of this once-boring iceball.
Hints of Dione's activity have recently come from Cassini, which has been exploring the Saturn system since 2004. The spacecraftβs magnetometer has detected a faint particle stream coming from the moon, and images showed evidence for a possible liquid or slushy layer under its rock-hard ice crust. Other Cassini images have also revealed ancient, inactive fractures at Dione similar to those seen at Enceladus that currently spray water ice and organic particles.
The mountain examined in the latest paper -- published in March in the journal Icarus -- is called Janiculum Dorsa and ranges in height from about 0.6 to 1.2 miles (1 to 2 kilometers). The moon's crust appears to pucker under this mountain as much as about 0.3 mile (0.5 kilometer).
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 31 May 2013 04:24 (ten years ago) link
Wave at Saturn
One of the most exciting Cassini events in 2013 will be the unusual opportunity on July 19 to image the whole Saturn system as it is backlit by the sun. With Saturn covering the harsh light of the sun, we will be gathering unique ring science and also catching a glimpse of our very own home planet.The main science goal for the mosaic we are making of the Saturn system is to look at the more diffuse rings that encircle Saturn and check for change over time. A previous mosaic of the Saturn system Cassini made in 2006 revealed that the dusty E ring, which is fed by the water-ice plume of the moon Enceladus, had unexpectedly large variations in brightness and color around its orbit. We'll want to see how that looks seven Earth years and a Saturnian season later, giving us clues to the forces at work in the Saturn system. We'll do this analysis by collecting data from our visual and infrared mapping spectrometer, composite infrared mapping spectrometer and ultraviolet imaging spectrograph in addition to the imaging cameras.But one of the best parts of the mosaic we're making on July 19 is that we'll be able to take a picture of Earth β and all of you -- from about 898 million miles (1.44 billion kilometers) away. The Earth will appear to be just a pixel, but you can see in this simulated close-up what parts of it will be illuminated.
The main science goal for the mosaic we are making of the Saturn system is to look at the more diffuse rings that encircle Saturn and check for change over time. A previous mosaic of the Saturn system Cassini made in 2006 revealed that the dusty E ring, which is fed by the water-ice plume of the moon Enceladus, had unexpectedly large variations in brightness and color around its orbit. We'll want to see how that looks seven Earth years and a Saturnian season later, giving us clues to the forces at work in the Saturn system. We'll do this analysis by collecting data from our visual and infrared mapping spectrometer, composite infrared mapping spectrometer and ultraviolet imaging spectrograph in addition to the imaging cameras.But one of the best parts of the mosaic we're making on July 19 is that we'll be able to take a picture of Earth β and all of you -- from about 898 million miles (1.44 billion kilometers) away. The Earth will appear to be just a pixel, but you can see in this simulated close-up what parts of it will be illuminated.
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/images/SolSysSim6_final_642x361.jpg
Opportunities to image Earth from the outer solar system are few and far between and special care must be taken so we don't blind our cameras by looking in the direction of the sun, where Earth is. There have been only two images of Earth from the outer solar system in all the time humankind has been venturing out into space. The first and most distant was one was taken 23 years ago by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft from 4 billion miles (6 billion kilometers away), showing Earth as a pale blue dot . The other opportunity was Cassini's image in 2006 from 926 million miles (1.49 billion kilometers).North America and part of the Atlantic Ocean are expected to be illuminated when NASA's Cassini spacecraft takes a snapshot of Earth on July 19, 2013. This view is a close-up simulation. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
North America and part of the Atlantic Ocean are expected to be illuminated when NASA's Cassini spacecraft takes a snapshot of Earth on July 19, 2013. This view is a close-up simulation. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/images/earth_saturn_highphase_NO_DATE_640x360.jpg
We think Cassini's July image is a special opportunity for Earthlings to wave at our photographer in the Saturn system and learn more about my favorite planet, its rings and moons. We hope you'll go outside, look in the direction of Saturn and send us pictures of yourselves waving. You can share your pictures by joining our Flickr group Wave at Saturn, adding them to our Wave at Saturn Facebook event page or tagging pictures on Twitter #waveatsaturn. We hope to make a special collage of all these images if we get enough of them.The Cassini portrait session of Earth will last about 15 minutes from 2:27 to 2:42 p.m. PDT (21:27 to 21:42 UTC).
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 19 July 2013 11:00 (ten years ago) link
And the photo for real...
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/images/mediumsize/PIA17171_ip.jpg
That's us in the right-middle
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 23 July 2013 00:02 (ten years ago) link
Enceledus in the E Ring
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5471/9457336045_a10b241763_o.png
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 14 August 2013 07:35 (ten years ago) link
Just read this short ebook, a Kindle single, The Pioneer Detectives: Did a Distant Spacecraft Prove Einstein and Newton Wrong? by Konstantin Kakaes, which I recommend to you, despite the sensationalist title.
― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 8 September 2013 20:24 (ten years ago) link
As griping in its way as one of those Scandinavian procedurals in which much coffee is drunk and many cigarettes are smoked whilst the investigators vainly search for a lead.
― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 8 September 2013 20:39 (ten years ago) link
http://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/images/6-saturn/2013/20131016_saturn_20131010.jpg
― caek, Thursday, 17 October 2013 17:12 (ten years ago) link
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2013/10161711-saturn-mosaic-gordan.html
― caek, Thursday, 17 October 2013 17:13 (ten years ago) link
Fucking amazing.
― Eyeball Kicks, Thursday, 17 October 2013 18:27 (ten years ago) link
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/images/mediumsize/PIA17172_ip.jpg
On July 19, 2013, in an event celebrated the world over, NASA's Cassini spacecraft slipped into Saturn's shadow and turned to image the planet, seven of its moons, its inner rings -- and, in the background, our home planet, Earth.
This image spans about 404,880 miles (651,591 kilometers) across.
info and larger versions showing earth, mars, venus and moons.
― fit and working again, Wednesday, 13 November 2013 20:47 (ten years ago) link
Looking back at Iapetus
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA17142-br500.jpg
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 23 December 2013 22:31 (ten years ago) link
Look out honey, 'cause I'm using cosmology.
― Bo Diddley Is A Threadkiller (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 8 May 2014 17:02 (nine years ago) link
http://photos-h.ak.instagram.com/hphotos-ak-ash/10251408_267670203415391_495424700_n.jpg
NASA's instagram today
― β΄β² β΄TH3CR()$BY$H()Wβ΄β² β΄ (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 8 May 2014 18:45 (nine years ago) link
May as well put this here too.Went to the Mt Wilson Observatory, saw a few things through the 60" telescope. Saw Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, the entire Sombrero galaxy (M104), a globular cluster (M3), and the Cat's Eye nebula.
Only Saturn seemed like it would turn out well on my point-and-shoot, so it's the only one I attempted (camera held right up to the eyepiece). It looked much more distinct in person, I could see streaks on its surface and a black band separating the sections of the rings. Seeing Sombrero was the most impressive - an entire galaxy in the view of my puny eye.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/nickn/Saturn_sm.jpg
― nickn, Monday, 26 May 2014 04:38 (nine years ago) link
Hooray, someone made it to the Atlas Obscura event! (couldn't go myself)
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 26 May 2014 19:31 (nine years ago) link
Cool picture regardless of conditions
Actually this was a fundraiser for the Black Rock Observatory, a Burning Man project. http://www.blackrockobservatory.com/
The AO event is at the end of June.
― nickn, Tuesday, 27 May 2014 16:44 (nine years ago) link
http://images.sciencedaily.com/2014/06/140622142124-large.jpg
Mysterious 'magic island' appears on Saturn's moon Titan
Now you don't see it. Now, you do. And now you don't see it again. Astronomers have discovered a bright, mysterious geologic object -- where one never existed -- on Cassini mission radar images of Ligeia Mare, the second-largest sea on Saturn's moon Titan. Scientifically speaking, this spot is considered a "transient feature," but the astronomers have playfully dubbed it "Magic Island."Reporting in the journal Nature Geoscience June 22, the scientists say this may be the first observation of dynamic, geological processes in Titan's northern hemisphere. "This discovery tells us that the liquids in Titan's northern hemisphere are not simply stagnant and unchanging, but rather that changes do occur," said Jason Hofgartner, a Cornell University graduate student in the field of planetary sciences, and the paper's lead author. "We don't know precisely what caused this 'magic island' to appear, but we'd like to study it further."
Reporting in the journal Nature Geoscience June 22, the scientists say this may be the first observation of dynamic, geological processes in Titan's northern hemisphere. "This discovery tells us that the liquids in Titan's northern hemisphere are not simply stagnant and unchanging, but rather that changes do occur," said Jason Hofgartner, a Cornell University graduate student in the field of planetary sciences, and the paper's lead author. "We don't know precisely what caused this 'magic island' to appear, but we'd like to study it further."
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 25 June 2014 06:51 (nine years ago) link
Ten years in orbit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8sNsmkXb8M
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 30 June 2014 22:12 (nine years ago) link
Ten years! Amazing work all this time.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 30 June 2014 22:13 (nine years ago) link
Rosetta Arrives At Target Comet
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/images/mediumsize/PIA18641_ip.jpg
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/rosetta/20140805/rosetta20140806b-640.jpg
― nickn, Thursday, 7 August 2014 17:35 (nine years ago) link
Is there a general "space images" thread that I should have posted this in?
― nickn, Thursday, 7 August 2014 17:38 (nine years ago) link
But when is Rosetta going to do a flyby of Uranus
― ιΎ, Thursday, 7 August 2014 17:38 (nine years ago) link
xp there's this: Astronomy Picture Of The Day
― fit and working again, Thursday, 7 August 2014 17:57 (nine years ago) link
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/images/PIA18431_690x3451.jpg
Swirling Cloud at Titan's Pole is Cold and Toxic
Scientists analyzing data from NASA's Cassini mission have discovered that a giant, toxic cloud is hovering over the south pole of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, after the atmosphere there cooled dramatically.The scientists found that this giant polar vortex contains frozen particles of the toxic compound hydrogen cyanide, or HCN.
The scientists found that this giant polar vortex contains frozen particles of the toxic compound hydrogen cyanide, or HCN.
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 1 October 2014 23:03 (nine years ago) link
i think i prefer lo-res images of space to hi-res. look how cool this is. so mysterious. no caption & your imagination runs wild.
― schlump, Wednesday, 1 October 2014 23:12 (nine years ago) link
walrus stampede, imo
― π€πππππ π ’ (+ +), Thursday, 2 October 2014 22:41 (nine years ago) link
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/cassini/20141016/cassini20141016-full.jpg
Cassini Caught in Hyperion's Particle Beam
Static electricity is known to play an important role on Earth's airless, dusty moon, but evidence of static charge building up on other objects in the solar system has been elusive until now. A new analysis of data from NASA's Cassini mission has revealed that, during a 2005 flyby of Saturn's moon Hyperion, the spacecraft was briefly bathed in a beam of electrons coming from the moon's electrostatically charged surface.The finding represents the first confirmed detection of a charged surface on an object other than our moon, although it is predicted to occur on many different bodies, including asteroids and comets.
The finding represents the first confirmed detection of a charged surface on an object other than our moon, although it is predicted to occur on many different bodies, including asteroids and comets.
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 17 October 2014 09:16 (nine years ago) link
"...picture taken of a comet from the Rosetta probe." As shared by an fb friend. I didn't know the probe was going to land on Rosetta (iow, not sure what I'm looking at here).
http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/files/2014/10/ESA_Rosetta_NAVCAM_141018_D.jpg
― nickn, Saturday, 25 October 2014 01:04 (nine years ago) link
that's the "neck" of the comet, seen at a distance of something like 7km. rosetta is orbiting increasingly closer and will deploy the landing probe (a separate craft) in a few weeks.
― sleepingsignal, Saturday, 25 October 2014 01:40 (nine years ago) link
I was wondering about that object in the distance, I couldn't tell if that was just a longer view of the same shot, superimposed on the close-up, or a separate entity.
― nickn, Saturday, 25 October 2014 03:01 (nine years ago) link
that's the "head", attached to the part in the foreground. there are plenty of images of the comet in its entirety showing the odd shape.
― sleepingsignal, Saturday, 25 October 2014 04:16 (nine years ago) link
OK, I see it now, it looked like a separate object. I posted pictures Aug 7, and I think I can tell the angle this latest shot was taken from in it (upper right looking down).
― nickn, Saturday, 25 October 2014 05:31 (nine years ago) link
Cassini Caught in Hyperion's Particle BeamStatic electricity is known to play an important role on Earth's airless, dusty moon, but evidence of static charge building up on other objects in the solar system has been elusive until now. A new analysis of data from NASA's Cassini mission has revealed that, during a 2005 flyby of Saturn's moon Hyperion, the spacecraft was briefly bathed in a beam of electrons coming from the moon's electrostatically charged surface.The finding represents the first confirmed detection of a charged surface on an object other than our moon, although it is predicted to occur on many different bodies, including asteroids and comets.β Elvis Telecom, Friday, October 17, 2014 5:16 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark
β Elvis Telecom, Friday, October 17, 2014 5:16 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark
But do you think Uranus emits electron beams?
― ιΎ, Saturday, 25 October 2014 11:51 (nine years ago) link
Sunlit seas of Titan.
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/w2ui6jcj6xtonw9gi6g9.png
― nickn, Monday, 3 November 2014 22:30 (nine years ago) link
I like the "large images!" warning
― example (crΓΌt), Monday, 3 November 2014 22:32 (nine years ago) link
Eagerly waiting to see pictures of the sun reflected off the seas of Uranus
― ιΎ, Monday, 3 November 2014 22:34 (nine years ago) link
Don't know where to put so: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/06/science/astronomers-observe-supernova-and-find-theyre-watching-reruns.html?_r=0
― Cartesian Dual in the Sun (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 5 March 2015 20:21 (nine years ago) link
What the Enceladus flyby next week will look like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuAgTEunHFA
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 23 October 2015 04:33 (eight years ago) link
Love these little probes just chugging along out there, being amazing
― as verbose and purple as a Peter Ustinov made of plums (James Morrison), Monday, 26 October 2015 00:57 (eight years ago) link
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/system/resources/detail_files/7395_7395_saturn_gill_infrared_ai_wm_display.jpg
Top Cassini Images for 2016: https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/2983/cassini-top-10-images-2016/
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 30 December 2016 07:23 (seven years ago) link
Sad to see the mission soon to end but damn if it hasn't produced wonders all along.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 30 December 2016 15:49 (seven years ago) link
By the way, those who like gas giant cloudscapes for desktop backgrounds etc. should check out this 2010 reprocessed mosaic of Jupiter's Great Red Spot from Voyager I.
― Least-satisfying overall (Sanpaku), Friday, 30 December 2016 17:25 (seven years ago) link
xp I have that one saved and sometimes I just break it out and stare at it. In the words of Nigel Tufnel, "too much fuckin' perspective".Cassini has been one of the greatest scientific triumphs I can remember. I often recall reading about Carolyn Porco back in 1980 when she was a mission specialist on Voyager, and here she is 36 years later heading up my favourite solar system mission of all (well, I guess Voyager rules them all, but Cassini has been the most engaging and involving). I remember saturating our dialup connection watching the live feed from Huygens' descent, now THAT has to be one of the most incredible pieces of engineering and execution we have ever achieved.I'm sad(ish) for the end but I CANNOT WAIT to see the science from the ring dive orbits.
― attention vampire (MatthewK), Friday, 30 December 2016 22:08 (seven years ago) link
Sudden flashback memory of watching Huygens' landing at a Starbucks because of the free wi-fi
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 30 December 2016 22:23 (seven years ago) link
Mimashttp://saturnraw.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS97/N00275752.jpg
― new noise, Thursday, 2 February 2017 23:12 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, it looks like a clay model for 'The Little Prince'.
― Spencer Chow, Friday, 3 February 2017 00:03 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrGAQCq9BMU
― Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 9 April 2017 09:18 (six years ago) link
And per the video Elvis T posted, the Grand Finale mission began yesterday with the first successful dive between rings and planet
https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/3032/nasa-spacecraft-dives-between-saturn-and-its-rings/
Sad to see it end over the next few months but damn, just like Galileo was, what a heck of a great mission.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 27 April 2017 23:42 (six years ago) link
uranus
― ιΎ, Friday, 28 April 2017 00:58 (six years ago) link
Four days to go. The finale has been wonderful these past few months.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 11 September 2017 21:55 (six years ago) link
https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/
The last visit to Titan is complete, it's en route towards a full Saturn plunge.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 11 September 2017 21:58 (six years ago) link
if the destruction of cassini is to prevent altering the biological environments of the orbiting moons then why did we drop the huygens probe on titan
― global tetrahedron, Thursday, 14 September 2017 21:26 (six years ago) link
O heartless cynic.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 14 September 2017 21:44 (six years ago) link
I for one am sad! But also, hasn't this been one of the most successful NASA missions ever? And I think now they're planning to go to Jupiter's Europa as a result of things they learned on this mission.
― Dominique, Thursday, 14 September 2017 21:48 (six years ago) link
Nothing can replace my pure and total love for Voyager, but Cassini comes pretty close
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Thursday, 14 September 2017 22:48 (six years ago) link
Cassini-Huygens: Preventing Biological Contamination
The Huygens probe which landed on Titan was not sterilized as the chances of finding life were considered insignificant. From further investigations it is evident that chances for life on Titan are higher than initially thought. Although forward contamination in this case is still considered unlikely, it reinforces the need to ensure we protect extra-terrestrial chances of life.
― new noise, Thursday, 14 September 2017 23:00 (six years ago) link
Nice photographic summary of the mission here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/14/science/cassini-saturn-images.html
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Thursday, 14 September 2017 23:13 (six years ago) link
it's also just cool to blow up your damn spaceship in the atmosphere of a planet billions of miles away xp
― global tetrahedron, Friday, 15 September 2017 00:06 (six years ago) link
Scuttlin' into Saturn
― calstars, Friday, 15 September 2017 00:34 (six years ago) link
The final images from our nearly 20 years in space are arriving. Unprocessed images are available at: https://t.co/8r5YwwIKVp #GrandFinale pic.twitter.com/46ivtDAdqd— CassiniSaturn (@CassiniSaturn) September 14, 2017
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 15 September 2017 03:03 (six years ago) link
Here is Enceladus, as a crescent, lit by Saturnshine. Our last view. Processed to RGB by me. pic.twitter.com/zr2JsjXj4q— Emily Lakdawalla (@elakdawalla) September 15, 2017
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 15 September 2017 03:23 (six years ago) link
Here is my first crack at assembling the Enceladus-setting animation. Missing some frames, need to align to make it smoother pic.twitter.com/SARPsYjWze— Emily Lakdawalla (@elakdawalla) September 15, 2017
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 15 September 2017 03:24 (six years ago) link
Melodramatic, but he's earned it
I made the mistake of imagining what it would be like to be Cassini, watching Saturn grow larger & larger, sending my discoveries home...— Bobak Ferdowsi (@tweetsoutloud) September 14, 2017
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 15 September 2017 05:10 (six years ago) link
And there it went...
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 15 September 2017 11:57 (six years ago) link
RIP big man
― Le Bateau Ivre, Friday, 15 September 2017 12:06 (six years ago) link
Thx & RIP
― StanM, Friday, 15 September 2017 12:26 (six years ago) link
the nytimes link james posted has some truly breathtaking images, holy shit
rip cassini, you had a hell of an eye for photography
― here's how **takes sip of duck urine** economics works (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 15 September 2017 12:38 (six years ago) link
Was asleep when it happened, but maybe for the best.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 15 September 2017 13:28 (six years ago) link
Can anyone explain the process behind transmitting these amazing images back to earth?
― calstars, Friday, 15 September 2017 14:33 (six years ago) link
cassini was towing an ethernet cable hardwired to a computer in houston iirc
― here's how **takes sip of duck urine** economics works (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 15 September 2017 14:36 (six years ago) link
once it got past mars the lag meant it couldn't play a decent round of doom anymore
For calstars, copied from an actually useful yahoo answers page:
By radio waves. The transmission is programmed into the computers on Cassini at a particular time and the receiving stations of the Deeps Space network are ready to receive the data stream 46 hours later.
"...The Cassini spacecraft is supported by two major components of the JPL's Interplanetary Network Directorate (IND).
Telecommunications and data acquisition support is provided by the NASA Deep Space Network, the world's largest, most sensitive spacecraft communications network. The DSN consists of three deep space communications complexes located approximately 120 degrees of longitude apart around the world: at Goldstone, California; near Madrid, Spain; and near Canberra, Australia. This placement permits continuous communication with deep space spacecraft. The DSN supports Earth orbiter spacecraft communications, as well as, radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploraton of the solar system and the universe.
The DSN provides the vital two-way communications link that guides and controls the Cassini spacecraft. The DSN 34-meter-diameter (112-foot) and 70-meter-diameter antennas are precision pointed, high-gain, parabolic reflector antennas with high power transmitters and ultra low noise (3 Kelvin operating temperature) amplifiers. Each deep space communication complex provides capabilities required to perform telemetry data processing including signal reception and amplification, signal demodulation and decoding, and data packet extraction. A capability to control the spacecraft via commands received from the Cassini project and transmitted from the DSN using 20 kilowatt transmitters is provided. Precision navigation is provided by measurements of signal phase and generation of range data which make use of the ultrastable frequency and timing capabilities of the DSN. All DSN complexes are linked to JPL via a world-wide communications network.
Cassini is also supported by IND's Advanced Multimission Operations System. Known as AMMOS, this system provides a common set of mission operations services and tools to the Cassini mission, as well as to other JPL spaceflight projects. They include capabilities which enable Cassini engineers to do mission planning and analysis, develop pre-planned sets of commands to the spacecraft, perform trajectory calculations for navigating the spacecraft, and process telemetry data (i.e., downlink data from the spacecraft). The AMMOS also provides capabilities for the Cassini Flight team to display and analyze key measurements, such as readings of temperature, pressure, and power, from the spacecraft. Other mission operations services include simulation of telemetry and command data, data management and retrieval of all data types used by the Cassini project, and data archiving.
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Saturday, 16 September 2017 02:39 (six years ago) link
Brilliant. I will have to read that several times before it makes sense. I didn't know radio waves could carry imagery.
Cheers James!
― calstars, Saturday, 16 September 2017 02:45 (six years ago) link
radio can carry anything digital
― El Tomboto, Saturday, 16 September 2017 03:02 (six years ago) link
I want to visit the Canberra DSN post now, if I ever get to travel there again
― El Tomboto, Saturday, 16 September 2017 03:03 (six years ago) link
Nice in-house profile of members of the team and the build-up to the end.
https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/3122/cassinis-family-takes-the-plunge/
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 16 September 2017 03:57 (six years ago) link
Can anyone explain...
The telemetry downlink speed wasn't terrible. 14.2 baud, during Saturn orbit phase, if I'm reading this correctly. A state of the art 1991 phone modem.
― Special Egyptian Guest Star (Sanpaku), Saturday, 16 September 2017 05:19 (six years ago) link
Oops, 14400 kbit/s.
By comparison, New Horizons, sending back the data from its Pluto flyby, and using both antennas, was limited to 2000 bits per second. Your 1995 AOL dial-up was 28 times faster. Space porn requires patience.
― Special Egyptian Guest Star (Sanpaku), Saturday, 16 September 2017 05:25 (six years ago) link
Emptying out the Cassini conference room. (thread)
This is the β¦@CassiniSaturnβ© - VIMS Operations Center (read: conference room). For the rest of the month, my job is to dismantle it - making sure the stuff that needs to be destroyed gets destroyed, sorting out the rest. This is going to be fun! pic.twitter.com/fiPQxfRr2e— Emily J (@EmExAstris) September 5, 2019
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 12 September 2019 20:59 (four years ago) link
Somebody just pointed me to this page, maybe itβs already mentioned upthread or elsewhere:https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
― Solaris Ocean Blue (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 13 February 2022 16:47 (two years ago) link