Cassini probe at Saturn... (warning -- large images!)

I guess you can say you weren't disappointed!

Another view of that 'coastline' area:

ihttp://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/cassini_huygens/huygens_land/press_release_050120/HRICoastLineMoasic_H.jpg

"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 — if you're looking for a job with instant and guaranteed success, this isn't it."

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)

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/video-details.cfm?videoID=99

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0505/saturnplane_cassini.jpg

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/sci_nat_enl_1132146654/img/1.jpg

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/videothumbnails/images/IMG002117-br402.jpg

...s on the surface.

Titan's all cold and stuff!

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??)

It's ROCHESTER, NY!

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?

Well but they're special rocks.

special as in olympics?

Images coming in from yesterday's close flyby of Iapetus

http://www.planetary.org/image/iapetus_cassini_20070910_SATUSHINE001_PRIME_colormos_lg.jpg

http://www.planetary.org/image/iapetus_cassini_20070910_ICYMAP003_UVIS_mosaic_regan_lg.jpg

these are kind of creepy.

More evidence for Titan having a subsurface ocean

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.

Crazy... and AWESOME

That needs to happen. (Like they've got anything to lose!)

god that would be incredible

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

Looking for life in Enceladus’ 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. That’s an exciting possibility, depending as it does not on an orbiter or lander mission from an indefinite future but on equipment we’ve 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.

We’ve already found a dozen icy particle jets coming out of Enceladus’ 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 moon’s 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:

Also, http://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn

TWITTER HAS GONE TOO FAR

Lakes on Titan!

awesome we can go hydrocarbon-skiing.

Cassini images shadows cast by thousands of ring boulders and particles

http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/saturn-shadow-crop.jpg

That is so way cool. Thanks!

For any London ILXors or folks visiting, great looking exhibition of Cassini images at the Royal Observatory:

Visions of Saturn