Cassini/Huygens Mission Update Thread Pt. 2

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<b>Close to the Shepherd Moons</b><br /><br /><i>This spectacular image shows Prometheus (at left) and Pandora (at right), with their flock of icy ring particles (the F ring) between them. Pandora is exterior to the ring, and closer to the spacecraft here. Each of the shepherd satellites has an unusual shape, with a few craters clearly visible.<br /><br />The effect of Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) on the F ring is visible as it pulls material out of the ring when it is farthest from Saturn in its orbit. Pandora is 84 kilometers (52 miles) across.<br /><br />The image was taken in polarized green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 29, 2005, at a distance of approximately 459,000 kilometers (285,000 miles) from Pandora and 483,500 kilometers (300,500 miles) from Prometheus. The image scale is 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel on Pandora and 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel on Prometheus. The view was acquired from about a third of a degree below the ringplane.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07653.html <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

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I am glad I lived long enough to see that picture <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> They look great! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

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One of Cassinis' shots is up for Image of year. VOTE!<br /><br />http://www.time.com/time/potw/2005_editors_choice/vote.html

 

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I did - and that image is one of my favorites. It's the desktop background on my laptop. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

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<b>Enceladus Plume</b><br /><br /><i>During a non-targeted flyby by the Cassini spacecraft of Saturn's moon Enceladus on Nov. 26, 2005, Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer measured the spectrum of the plumes originating from the south pole of the icy moon. <br /><br />The instrument captured a very clear signature of small ice particles in the plume data, at the 2.9 micron wavelength. This image of Enceladus, taken with the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer, shows not only the plume over the south pole, but also the dark side of the moon, silhouetted against a foggy background of light from the E Ring. <br /><br />The bottom graph shows the measurements of the spectrum, of this background light. It shows a very similar signature of small ice particles to that in the plumes, confirming earlier expectations that Enceladus is indeed the source of the E ring. <br /><br />Preliminary analyses suggest that the average size of the particles in the plume is about 10 microns (or 1/100,000 of a meter). The particles in the E ring are about three times smaller. The sunlit surface of Enceladus itself, visible as a thin crescent at the bottom of the image, is also composed of water ice, but with a much larger grain size than the plume.</i> <br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia06443.html<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

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Photo and graph for the above article: <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

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<b>Bright Arc of Ice</b><br /><br /><i>The searing arc of light seen here is Saturn's icy F ring, seen nearly edge-on. In the background, Rhea (1,528 kilometers, 949 miles across) is lit by reflected light from Saturn and the rings, with only the slightest sliver of light at its bottom being from direct sunlight.<br /><br />The faint material surrounding the F ring likely lies in the planet's equatorial plane, extending radially farther out and in from the main F ring core. A smaller fraction of this material could be vertically extended, and Cassini's investigations should help to clarify this.<br /><br />The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 30, 2005, at a distance of approximately 689,000 kilometers (428,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is approximately 4 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07655.html<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

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<b>Storm Down Under</b><br /><br /><i>An oval-shaped feature, wider than Earth and with streamers extending out to the east and west, swirls in Saturn's southern hemisphere. Like the rainbands of a Southern Hemisphere hurricane on Earth, the streamers spiral into the feature in a clockwise direction. Unlike Earth's hurricanes, this storm probably contains no liquid water.<br /><br />The planet's equatorial rings cut across the top of the image.<br /><br />The image was taken in wavelengths of polarized infrared light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Oct. 30, 2005, at a distance of approximately 324,000 kilometers (202,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 32 kilometers (20 miles) per pixel.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07656.html <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

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<b>Small Worlds of Saturn</b><br /><br /><i>Gazing across the ringplane, the Cassini spacecraft spots a Saturn-lit Mimas and the tiny Trojan moon Helene. Only the bright crescent on Mimas' eastern limb is lit by the Sun; the moon's night side is illuminated by Saturnshine, or "greylight" as it is called by imaging scientists.<br /><br />Helene (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across) shares the orbit of Dione (not pictured here) and is visible as a speck to the left of Mimas. This view shows the Saturn-facing side of Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across).<br /><br />The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 2, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Mimas and at a Sun-Mimas-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 121 degrees. Helene was about 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) distant. The image scale is 12 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on Mimas.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07657.html <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

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Photo for the above... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

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<b>Slicing Through Dione</b><br /><br /><i>Dione is partly occulted by Saturn's rings in this nearly edge-on view, taken from less than a tenth of a degree above the ringplane. The side of the rings nearer to the Cassini spacecraft was masked by Saturn's shadow at the time and appears dark.<br /><br />Bright, wispy fractures on Dione's trailing hemisphere curl around the horizon. Sunlit terrain seen on Dione (1,126 kilometers, 700 miles across) is on the moon's Saturn-facing hemisphere. North is up.<br /><br />The image was taken in infrared light (centered at 752 nanometers) with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 3, 2005 at a distance of approximately 2.5 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 109 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 15 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07658.html <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

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This mission continues to amaze....<br /><br /><b>Cassini's Galactic Aspirations</b><br /><br /><i>Cassini briefly turned its gaze from Saturn and its rings and moons to marvel at the Carina Nebula, a brilliant region 8,000 light years from our solar system and more than 200 light years across. Nearly every point of light in this image is a star in our galaxy, the Milky Way. <br /><br />The nebula is a region of gas and dust made to glow by the ultraviolet light bursting from bright, hot and extremely massive young stars within. Darker regions in the scene are not devoid of stars; rather, they are areas where dense clouds of dust block the light from background stars. <br /><br />This image and others like it are taken by the spacecraft from time to time for calibration purposes. Calibration images rarely contain such incredible sights. This one affirms Cassini's position as the farthest, working astronomical observatory ever established around our sun -- our eyes on the cosmos, a billion miles from Earth. <br /><br />The image was taken using the Cassini wide-angle camera on May 14, 2005. The view is a 68-second, clear-filter exposure. </i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07773.html <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

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<b>T9: Voyager Redux</b><br /><br /><i>During Cassini's Dec. 26 flyby of Titan, the spacecraft will be in the same region that NASA's Voyager 1 flew by in 1980. Cassini's path through the tail of Titan's magnetic field will provide scientists new data to compare with what Voyager found 25 years ago.</i><br /><br />http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm <br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

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<b>Rhea Eclipses Dione</b><br /><br /><i>Two crescent moons dance around Saturn as far-off Dione slips behind its sibling moon Rhea. From Cassini's perspective, Rhea's bulk (1,528 kilometers, 949 miles wide) completely covered her smaller celestial companion Dione (1,126 kilometers, 700 miles wide) for about three minutes before the smaller moon re-emerged. <br /><br />The images used for this movie sequence were taken over approximately 27 minutes as Cassini stared at Rhea. The images were aligned to keep Rhea close to the center of the scene. Additional frames were inserted among the 38 original Cassini images in order to smooth the appearance of Dione's movement -- a scheme called interpolation. For another eclipse movie showing these two moons, see pia06199 <br /><br />The clear-filter images in this movie were acquired with the Cassini narrow-angle camera on Dec. 5, 2005, from a distance of 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Rhea and 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Dione. Image scale is about 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel on Rhea and 16 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel on Dione. </i><br /><br />Video clip here: http://www.nasa.gov/mpg/139953main_PIA07770_full_movie.mpg <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

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<b>Saturnian Cartography</b><br /><br /><i>Like the terrestrial maps of old, assembled from the findings gathered from distant lands by ships plying the oceans of Earth, Cassini images have been joined with Voyager images to create the best currently available maps of the Saturnian moons.</i><br /><br />High res maps of Dione; Enceladus; Iapetus; Mimas; Rhea; Tethys and Phoebe.<br /><br />http://ciclops.org/view_event.php?id=48&flash=1 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

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Iapetus. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

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Raw image: <i>W00012504.jpg was taken on December 24, 2005 and received on Earth December 25, 2005. The camera was pointing toward SATURN at approximately 215,572 kilometers away, and the image was taken using the CL1 and CL2 filters. </i> <br /><br />http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/raw-images-list.cfm?StartRow=81&cacheQ=1&browseLatest=0&storedQ=1144635 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

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Raw image: <i>W00012503.jpg was taken on December 24, 2005 and received on Earth December 25, 2005. The camera was pointing toward SATURN at approximately 216,394 kilometers away, and the image was taken using the CL1 and CL2 filters. </i><br /><br />http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/raw-images-details.cfm?feiImageID=59073 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

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RAw image: <i>N00047243.jpg was taken on December 24, 2005 and received on Earth December 25, 2005. The camera was pointing toward TETHYS at approximately 195,278 kilometers away, and the image was taken using the P120 and UV3 filters. </i><br /><br />http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/raw-images-details.cfm?feiImageID=59024 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

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Titan 12/26/05 fly by images are posted.<br /><br />See: http://saturn1.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/index.cfm <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

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<i>W00012610.jpg was taken on December 26, 2005 and received on Earth December 27, 2005. The camera was pointing toward TITAN at approximately 37,389 kilometers away, and the image was taken using the CB3 and CL2 filters.</i><br /><br />http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/raw-images-details.cfm?feiImageID=59293 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

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<i>W00012603.jpg was taken on December 26, 2005 and received on Earth December 27, 2005. The camera was pointing toward TITAN at approximately 58,156 kilometers away, and the image was taken using the CB3 and CL2 filters. This image has not been validated or calibrated.</i><br /><br />http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/raw-images-details.cfm?feiImageID=59286 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

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<i>W00012695.jpg was taken on December 26, 2005 and received on Earth December 27, 2005. The camera was pointing toward TITAN at approximately 25,404 kilometers away, and the image was taken using the CL1 and RED filters.</i><br /><br />http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/raw-images-details.cfm?feiImageID=59378<br /><br /><b>Can't wait to see this one in false color...</b> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

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What is this? Is that Saturn in the background?

 

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Yes. <br /><br />There's a great sequence of Saturn emerging from behind Titan here:<br /><br />http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/raw-images-list.cfm?StartRow=49&cacheQ=1&browseLatest=0&storedQ=1146667 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>