Cassini/Huygens Mission Update Thread Pt. 2

webscientist · Jul 29, 2006

This radar image of Titan's northern latitudes taken on July 21, 2006 is interesting. The dark patch, probably a lake, is about 47 km long ( 29 miles ) and 25 km wide ( 16 miles). A dark channel, probably a drainage channel is clearly visible on the right side of the dark patch. The visible part of the channel is at least 5 km long ( 3 miles ). www.titanexploration.com

chew_on_this · Jul 31, 2006

Let's all go cryo-fishing at lake Titan this weekend!

vogon13 · Jul 31, 2006

I bet the psuedo-pantheria fish are a bitin' ! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!So many people, so few recipes !!Let's clean up this stinkhole !! </div>

titanian · Jul 31, 2006

You know that Titanian fishes are not made of water! I prefer sailing in this lake.

webscientist · Aug 1, 2006

Will you gess? where is this lake located? www.titanexploration.com

chew_on_this · Aug 1, 2006

Lake Tana, Ethiopia

webscientist · Aug 1, 2006

Well played! It's also a radar image and it's roughly the same size as the ( pseudo) Titan lake above. So, the comparison of both radar images is interesting. www.titanexploration.com

chew_on_this · Aug 1, 2006

I cheated, properties FTW!

3488 · Aug 2, 2006

The resemblance is striking. Lake Tana is the source of the Blue Nile if I am not mistaken. Different chemical & temperature properties ( Lake Tana, Amharic Highlands, Ethiopia, about 40 C / 104 F & liquid water. Lakes on Titan, about -180 C / -292 F & liquid Methane. Thank you for that. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before". Linda Morabito on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.http://www.launchphotography.com/ http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearthhttp://web.me.com/meridianijournal </div>

chew_on_this · Aug 2, 2006

I cheated by looking at the properties of the pic to get the name, right click > properties.

telfrow · Aug 4, 2006

Saturn and Earth Ready for Cosmic Game of Peekaboo August 3, 2006 Saturn has a date to keep with Earth and the Sun. Since the Cassini spacecraft is orbiting Saturn, it's tagging along. Once a year Saturn and Earth find themselves almost directly opposite each other with the Sun in between, an event called conjunction. This year, conjunction will occur on Aug. 7. NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, known as SOHO (http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/), keeps close watch on the Sun. SOHO images show Saturn on the left moving toward the Sun, which is shielded from view but represented by a white circle in the image center. When Saturn emerges from conjunction, it will appear in SOHO images heading toward the right and away from Sun. As Earth and Saturn play peekaboo with each other, radio communications with Cassini get very noisy, so most of Cassini's science operations are temporarily suspended. "We'll still be in constant communication," says David Doody, Cassini flight operations lead, "and we'll see the quality degrading as it nears the Sun. The last high-rate science data playback, at 14,220 bits per second, will occur Aug. 4, after which Cassini switches to low-rate telemetry downlink, at 1896 bps." During conjunction, the mission switches gears. "Finally, a break," says Doody. "We know the spacecraft is safe, especially since it won't be doing lots of commanded science activities, instead just staring at Earth with its high gain antenna. We'll be carrying out radio science studies of the solar corona, using carrier signals coming down from Cassini to study the sun's extended, super-hot atmosphere. Meanwhile, the spacecraft team's radio communications engineers will watch how many out of 100 test commands sent each day are received aboard the spacecraft with the noisy Sun in the way." "We'll also be using this low-activity period to conduct an operational readiness test, realistic training usin <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild. - Tennyson </div>

3488 · Aug 9, 2006

Saturn just past solar conjuntion. Bright object to the upper right of the Sun, as seen from the LASCO 3 instrument on board the SOHO spacecraft. Wednesday 9th August 2006. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before". Linda Morabito on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.http://www.launchphotography.com/ http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearthhttp://web.me.com/meridianijournal </div>

3488 · Aug 14, 2006

Saturn's low density and fast rotation combine to give it its characteristic oblate shape. The dramatic crescent seen here demonstrates how the ringed planet is much wider at the equator than at the poles. The rings disappear near center into the darkness of the planet's shadow. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 11, 2006 at a distance of approximately 2.9 million kilometers (1.8 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 163 degrees. Image scale is 169 kilometers (105 miles) per pixel. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before". Linda Morabito on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.http://www.launchphotography.com/ http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearthhttp://web.me.com/meridianijournal </div>

telfrow · Aug 21, 2006

Opposition Surge on the A Ring August 21, 2006 Full-Res: PIA08247 Two images of Saturn's A and B ring showcase the opposition effect, a brightness surge that is visible on Saturn's rings when the Sun is directly behind the spacecraft. This view is of the A ring. See Opposition Surge on the B Ring for the view of the B ring. The opposition effect exists because of two contributing factors. One is due to the fact that the shadows of ring particles directly opposite the Sun from Cassini -- the region of opposition -- fall completely behind the particles as seen from the spacecraft. These shadows are thus not visible to the spacecraft: all ring particle surfaces visible to the spacecraft in these two images are in sunlight and therefore bright. Much farther away from the region of opposition, the ring particle shadows become more visible and the scene becomes less bright. The brightness falls off in a circular fashion around the opposition point. The main factor to the opposition surge in this image is an optical phenomenon called "coherent backscatter." Here, the electromagnetic signal from the rays of scattered sunlight making its way back to the spacecraft is enhanced near the region of opposition because, instead of canceling, the electric and magnetic fields comprising the scattered radiation fluctuate in unison. The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 23, 2006 at a distance of approximately 262,000 kilometers (163,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale in the radial, or outward from Saturn, direction is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel. Link <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild. - Tennyson </div>

plutocrass · Sep 5, 2006

I'd like to know if there is a way to determine how the craters were formed on moons like Tethys. How do you tell the difference between formation from heat/bubbling/cooling, vs. impact? "...Uranus, Neptune, and The Pluto Family."

3488 · Sep 6, 2006

Hi plutocrass, The answer is likely to be ejecta blankets, although for older craters, the blankets may have been removed by radiation darkening or micrometeorites. There may also be radial fractures in the surrounding terrain too. I think that central peaks from the rebound of the crater floor after impact are a clue too. I suspect that Tethys, Dione, Rhea & Iapetus may have had cryovolcanoes in the very distant past. Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before". Linda Morabito on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.http://www.launchphotography.com/ http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearthhttp://web.me.com/meridianijournal </div>

3488 · Sep 7, 2006

The stars of the Pleiades cluster, also known by the names "M45" and "the Seven Sisters," shine brightly in this view from the Cassini spacecraft. The cluster is comprised of hundreds of stars, a few of which are visible to the unaided eye on Earth as a brilliant grouping in the constellation Taurus. Some faint nebulous material is seen here. This reflection nebula is dust that reflects the light of the hot, blue stars in the cluster. The monochrome view was made by combining 49 clear filter images of the Pleiades taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 1, 2006. The images were taken as a part of a sequence designed to help calibrate the camera electronics. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before". Linda Morabito on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.http://www.launchphotography.com/ http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearthhttp://web.me.com/meridianijournal </div>

bdewoody · Sep 13, 2006

Watched a good show on the Science channel last night with some reports on the progress that is being made interpreting the raw data that has been recieved. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Bob DeWoody </div>

telfrow · Sep 16, 2006

Ethane Clouds Over Titan September 14, 2006 Full-Res: PIA08739 The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer on NASA's Cassini spacecraft recorded these infrared images of Titan's northern hemisphere. The images show the reflection of sunlight on Titan's atmosphere at 2.8 microns, longer wavelengths than human eyes can detect. The image appears in false color so that the highest reflection appears as a reddish hue. The vast ethane cloud can be seen in all images as a reddish band just north of 50 degrees latitude. The top of the image in panel D also shows a strong reflection off the limb of the planet (also reddish), which is caused by the lighting angle and does not indicate the presence of clouds. Image (A) was taken on Dec. 13, 2004; image (B) on Aug. 22, 2005; image (C) on Aug. 21, 2005; and image (D) on Sept. 7, 2005. Link <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild. - Tennyson </div>

telfrow · Sep 16, 2006

Crater Studies on Titan September 12, 2006 Full-Res: PIA08737 This image from Cassini's radar instrument shows an impact crater with a diameter of 30 kilometers (19 miles) on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan. Cassini data have only revealed three definite impact craters on Titan so far, so each new discovery adds significantly to our body of knowledge. Impact craters are particularly important, as their shapes give scientists insight into the structure of the crust beneath Titan's surface. The difference in overall appearance between this crater, which has a central peak, and those without, such as Sinlap, (See Impact Crater with Ejecta Blanket), indicates variations in the conditions of impact, thickness of the crust, or properties of the meteorite that made the crater. The dark floor indicates smooth or highly absorbing materials. This image was acquired by the Cassini radar instrument in synthetic aperture mode during a Sept. 7, 2006, flyby of Titan. The image is centered at 70 degrees west longitude, 10 degrees north latitude, and measures about 150 kilometers high by 190 kilometers wide (93 by 118 miles). The smallest details in this image are about 500 meters (about 550 yards) across. Link <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild. - Tennyson </div>

telfrow · Sep 16, 2006

Saturn's Rings To Shine As Never Before September 15, 2006 Ring scientists have been waiting for this. Finally, after more than two years orbiting Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft reaches one of the ultimate vantage points. The rings should shine with majesty worthy of the "Jewel of the Solar System." The event is a solar occultation -- when the sun passes directly behind the planet as Cassini looks on. And this is not just any solar occultation; it's a very long one. The Cassini spacecraft will be right where scientists studying the rings want it: far enough from Saturn to be able to image it all and, more importantly, with the Sun blocked by the planet for 12 hours, long enough to properly map the elusive microscopic particles moving within the extended ring system. Data collected during this observation might also uncover clues about Enceladus' past behavior and aid mission planners in refining ring hazard models for future ring crossings. Thanks to the slow occultation, images taken during this carefully designed orbit may also uncover new ring structures and, at the very least, capture truly spectacular views of the D, F, G and E rings. "We are all sort of on pins and needles waiting for the results," says Brad Wallis, Cassini Rings Discipline Scientist. "When you get these kinds of high phase angles, very small particles almost focus the light right at the observer. So these faint rings that are so hard to see are going to be considerably brighter and show us details that are just not possible to see in other viewing conditions. All the space between Enceladus and the G ring is probably going to be pretty well lit up. It's really a unique event." While solar occultations in the mission typically last only an hour, this time it will last almost 12 hours, truly a dream come true considering it takes about 30 minutes to turn the spacecraft to the proper position. During "regular" occultations, scientis <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild. - Tennyson </div>

3488 · Sep 18, 2006

This set of images exposes details on small and crumpled-looking Helene. Large portions of this Trojan moon of Dione appear to have been blasted away by impacts. Cassini passed within 50,000 kilometers (31,000 miles) of Helene (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across) on Aug. 17, 2006, when these images were acquired. The views were obtained over the course of an hour, and are presented here in reverse order (i.e., the leftmost image was taken latest). The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera. As presented here, the views were acquired at distances ranging from 62,000 to 51,000 kilometers (39,000 to 32,000 miles) from Helene and at a Sun-Helene-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 111 to 120 degrees. Image scale is 375 to 300 meters (1,230 to 984 feet) per pixel, from left to right. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before". Linda Morabito on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.http://www.launchphotography.com/ http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearthhttp://web.me.com/meridianijournal </div>

3488 · Sep 18, 2006

Hi telfrow. I qiet like that Radar image you posted. It seems to me as if the crust of Titan is quite thick in places. Would be interesting to know how deep that crater is. This crater along with Sinlap & the Circus Maximus, shows the crust of Titan has great structural strength. The centre of the Circus Maximus shows what may be 'cryovolcanic cones'. I will enhance an image & post it here for all at SDC to see. Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before". Linda Morabito on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.http://www.launchphotography.com/ http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearthhttp://web.me.com/meridianijournal </div>

3488 · Sep 19, 2006

This moody true color portrait of Saturn shows a world that can, at times, seem as serene and peaceful as it is frigid and hostile. Saturn's unlit-side rings embrace the planet while their shadows caress the northern hemisphere. Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) is a mere speck below the rings, just left of the terminator. The view was obtained from about 15 degrees above the ringplane as Cassini continued its climb to higher orbital inclinations. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The image was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 18, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 137 degrees. Image scale is 76 kilometers (47 miles) per pixel. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before". Linda Morabito on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.http://www.launchphotography.com/ http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearthhttp://web.me.com/meridianijournal </div>

3488 · Sep 19, 2006

This composite image, composed of two images taken with Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer, shows a crescent view of Saturn's moon Titan. The data were obtained during a flyby on July 22, 2006, at a distance of 15,700 kilometers (9,700 miles) from Titan. The image was constructed from images taken at wavelengths of 1.26 microns shown in blue, 2 microns shown in green, and 5 microns shown in red. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona where this image was produced. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team homepage is at http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before". Linda Morabito on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.http://www.launchphotography.com/ http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearthhttp://web.me.com/meridianijournal </div>

Cassini/Huygens Mission Update Thread Pt. 2

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