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

Look out honey, 'cause I'm using cosmology.

http://photos-h.ak.instagram.com/hphotos-ak-ash/10251408_267670203415391_495424700_n.jpg

NASA's instagram today

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

Hooray, someone made it to the Atlas Obscura event! (couldn't go myself)

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.

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."

Ten years in orbit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8sNsmkXb8M

Ten years! Amazing work all this time.

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

Is there a general "space images" thread that I should have posted this in?

But when is Rosetta going to do a flyby of Uranus

xp there's this: Astronomy Picture Of The Day

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.

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.

walrus stampede, imo

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.

"...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

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

― Elvis Telecom, Friday, October 17, 2014 5:16 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark

But do you think Uranus emits electron beams?

Sunlit seas of Titan.

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/w2ui6jcj6xtonw9gi6g9.png

I like the "large images!" warning

Eagerly waiting to see pictures of the sun reflected off the seas of Uranus

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

What the Enceladus flyby next week will look like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuAgTEunHFA

Love these little probes just chugging along out there, being amazing

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/

Sad to see the mission soon to end but damn if it hasn't produced wonders all along.

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.

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.

Sudden flashback memory of watching Huygens' landing at a Starbucks because of the free wi-fi

Mimas
http://saturnraw.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS97/N00275752.jpg

Yeah, it looks like a clay model for 'The Little Prince'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrGAQCq9BMU

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.

uranus

Four days to go. The finale has been wonderful these past few months.

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/

The last visit to Titan is complete, it's en route towards a full Saturn plunge.

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

O heartless cynic.

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.

Nothing can replace my pure and total love for Voyager, but Cassini comes pretty close

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.

Nice photographic summary of the mission here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/14/science/cassini-saturn-images.html

it's also just cool to blow up your damn spaceship in the atmosphere of a planet billions of miles away xp

Scuttlin' into Saturn

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