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

Dear god I love this kind of stuff.

would have been cooler if they had caught a meteor colliding with the rings around uranus

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

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 – including Saturn's moons Enceladus and Titan and Jupiter's moon Europa – 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 spacecraft’s 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).

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 – 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

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).

And the photo for real...

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/images/mediumsize/PIA17171_ip.jpg

That's us in the right-middle

Enceledus in the E Ring

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5471/9457336045_a10b241763_o.png

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.

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.

http://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/images/6-saturn/2013/20131016_saturn_20131010.jpg

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2013/10161711-saturn-mosaic-gordan.html

Fucking amazing.

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.

Looking back at Iapetus

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA17142-br500.jpg

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/PIA17142-br500.jpg

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