Cassini/Huygens Mission Update Thread Pt. 2

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silylene old

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<font color="yellow">No one talking about the Hot Spot on Enceladus yet? Quite interesting ... further drives home the fact that all the assumptions we make every day in astrophysics could all go down the crapper with one simple observation. </font><br /><br />Why do you say that?<br /><br />There are <i>two</i> threads on this subject, discussing all aspects in a lot of detail. In fact, aspects of these recent results were predicted by some people in the first thread below.<br />Here:<br />http://uplink.space.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=sciastro&Number=151667&page=3&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=7&vc=1<br />and here:<br />http://uplink.space.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=sciastro&Number=308770&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart= <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>
 
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astrophoto

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The first thread did not discuss this article and the results of the south pole release. The second post was posted AFTER I wrote my post here. Take it easy.
 
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silylene old

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The first thread did forsee the possibility of hot vents being quite possible on Encelaudus. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>
 
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telfrow

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<i>This close-up view is Cassini's best look yet at Saturn's tenuous innermost D ring. The narrow ringlet visible here is named "D68" and is the innermost discrete feature in the D ring. The image also clearly shows how the diffuse component of the D-ring tapers off as it approaches the planet.<br /><br />The view is looking down on the dark side of the rings, with the planet's lower half being illuminated by reflected light from the rings. The upper half of the planet is also dark. The image was taken at a high phase angle -- the Sun-Saturn-spacecraft angle, which was 177 degrees. Viewing the rings at high phase angle makes the finest dusty particles visible.<br /><br />The inner edge of the C ring enters the scene at the lower left, and Saturn's shadow cuts off the view of the rings. Several background stars can also be seen here.<br /><br />The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 15, 2005, at a distance of approximately 293,000 kilometers (182,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07568.html<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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telfrow

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<i>This map of Titan's surface illustrates the regions that will be imaged by Cassini during the spacecraft's close flyby of Titan on Aug. 22, 2005. At closest approach, the spacecraft is expected to pass approximately 3,800 kilometers (2,360 miles) above the moon's surface. At 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles) across, Titan is one of the solar system's largest moons.<br /><br />The colored lines delineate the regions that will be imaged at differing resolutions.<br /><br />As Cassini continues its reconnaissance of Titan, maps of this haze-enshrouded world continue to improve. Images from this flyby will sharpen the moderate resolution coverage of terrain on the side of Titan that always faces Saturn.<br /><br />The highest resolution image planned for this encounter will cover a 215-kilometer-wide (134-mile) bright feature provisionally named "Bazaruto Facula". (A facula is the name chosen to denote a bright spot on Titan.) At the center of the facula is an 80-kilometer-wide (50-mile) crater (not yet named), seen by Cassini's radar experiment during a Titan flyby in February 2005 (see PIA07368). The imaging cameras and visual and infrared mapping spectrometer images taken in March and April 2005 also show this crater (see PIA06234).<br /><br />The southernmost corner of the highest resolution (1 kilometer per pixel) frame should also cover the northern portion of a large bright feature provisionally known as "Quivira."<br /><br />Wide-angle images obtained during this flyby should cover much of the Tsegihi-Aztlan-Quivira region (also known as the "H" region) at lower resolution.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07711.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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CalliArcale

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That is an awesome view of the D-ring. The ring pictures from Cassini have been awesome and mind-blowing. I've never seen any paintings, CGI images, special effects, or anything that really showed how staggeringly beautiful Saturn's rings are. (Which is, of course, exactly why Kubrick abandoned the idea of setting "2001" at Saturn. No FX can even approximate the reality.) <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>
 
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telfrow

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<i>Swirling cloud bands, delicate ring shadows and icy moons make the Saturn system a place of supreme natural beauty. Even Cassini's remarkable images can only provide the slightest sense of the experience of actually being there.<br /><br />Tethys (at the right, 1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) and Mimas (near the center, 397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) are captured here against the planet's turbulent atmosphere.<br /><br />Although the rings are only a thin strip from this angle, one can see the structure of the entire main ring system in its shadow on the planet - from the C ring at the bottom to the faint specter of the F ring at the top.<br /><br />The image was taken in visible violet light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 16, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 66 kilometers (41 miles) per pixel.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07569.html<br /><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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telfrow

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<i>While close to Saturn in its orbit, Cassini stared directly at the planet to find Saturn's moon Pandora in the field of view. The F ring shepherd moon is gliding towards the right in this scene. The F ring is thinly visible just above the main rings. Pandora is 84 kilometers (52 miles) across.<br /><br />Near the lower left, some variation in the height of Saturn's cloud tops can be detected. This effect is often visible near the terminator (the day and night boundary), where the Sun is at a very low angle above Saturn's horizon.<br /><br />The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 16, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is about 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel on Saturn and about 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel on Pandora.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07570.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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telfrow

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<i>Saturn's moon Tethys displays its distinctive dark equatorial band here, along with two sizeable impact craters in the west. The larger crater to the north is Odysseus, which has a diameter (450 kilometers or 280 miles across) that is a substantial fraction of the moon's width. Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across.<br />Several moons in the outer solar system have large impact features like Odysseus, and scientists are interested in learning how such powerful impacts have altered the moons' surfaces.<br />The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 10, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Tethys. The image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07571.html<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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telfrow

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<i>As Cassini approached Titan on Aug. 21, 2005, it captured this natural color view of the moon's orange, global smog. Titan's hazy atmosphere was frustrating to NASA Voyager scientists during the first tantalizing Titan flybys 25 years ago, but now Titan's surface is being revealed by Cassini with startling clarity (see PIA06222 ).<br /><br />Images taken with the wide-angle camera using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this color view. The images were acquired at a distance of approximately 213,000 kilometers (132,000 miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 55 degrees. Resolution in the image is about 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07729.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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telfrow

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<b>First Quarter Mimas</b><br /><br /><i>As the closest-orbiting of Saturn's intermediate-sized moons, Mimas is occasionally captured against the planet's dim and shadowed northern latitudes. The moon is seen here next to the shadows cast by the dense B ring. Mimas is 397 kilometers (247 miles) across.<br /><br />The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 18, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Mimas and at a Sun-Mimas-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 90 degrees. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07573.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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telfrow

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Forgot the photo... <img src="/images/icons/blush.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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telfrow

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<b>Ring Study Subjects 8.29.05</b><br /><br /><i>Cassini turns its gaze toward Saturn's outer A ring to find the moon Pan coasting behind one of the thin ringlets which it shares with the Encke Gap. Pan is 26 kilometers (16 miles) across.<br /><br />Understanding the influence of Saturn's moons on its immense ring system is one of the goals of the Cassini mission. The study of the icy rings includes the delicate and smoky-looking F ring, seen here toward the upper right. The F ring exhibits bright kinks and multiple strands here.<br /><br />Arching across the center of the scene, the outermost section of the A ring is notably brighter than the ring material interior to it.<br /><br />The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 13, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.3 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel on Pan.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07574.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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telfrow

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<b>On the Lookout for Spokes</b><br /><br /><i>The extreme contrast in this view of the unlit side of Saturn's rings is intentional. Contrast-enhanced views like this are used to look for spokes (the transient, ghostly lanes of dust seen in NASA Voyager and Hubble Space Telescope images), but so far, none have been seen by Cassini.<br /><br />The apparent absence of spokes is thought to be related to the Sun's elevation angle above the ringplane, which currently is rather high. As summer wanes in the southern hemisphere, the Sun's angle will drop, and spoke viewing is expected to become more favorable.<br /><br />In unlit-side views, the denser ring regions (and empty gaps) appear dark, while less populated and dustier ring regions appear bright.<br /><br />The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 3, 2005, at a distance of approximately 781,000 kilometers (485,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 43 kilometers (27 miles) per pixel.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07576.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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telfrow

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<b>Tethys in the Dark</b><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07577.html<br /><br /><i>A close inspection of this image reveals that there is more of Saturn's moon Tethys here than is apparent at first glance. A slim crescent is all that is visible of the moon's sunlit side, but the left half of the image is dimly lit by "Saturnshine," or reflected light from the planet lying off to the left of Cassini's field of view. Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across.<br /><br />On occasion, useful details about a moon's surface characteristics can be revealed under such dim illumination, as in PIA06168.<br /><br />This view shows principally the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Tethys; north is up. Craters along the terminator, the boundary between day and night, are Penelope (at the top) and Antinous (at the bottom).<br /><br />The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 3, 2005. The spacecraft was approximately 842,000 kilometers (523,000 miles) from Tethys. The image was taken with a filter sensitive to wavelengths of polarized ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 144 degrees. Image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel.</i><br /><br /><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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rhodan

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That picture of Pandora in front of Saturn is absolutelu breathtaking!
 
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telfrow

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<b>Diagnostic Darkness</b><br /><br /><i>This magnificent view looks down upon, and partially through, Saturn's rings from their unlit side.<br /><br />The densest part of the rings occults the bright globe of Saturn. Scientists can use observations like this to determine precisely the concentration of ring particles.<br /><br />When the bright source is the signals coming from the spacecraft, the technique is called a 'radio occultation.' In a radio occultation measurement, a signal is beamed toward Earth from Cassini's 4-meter-wide (13-foot) high-gain antenna. Researchers on Earth receive the signal as the spacecraft passes behind the rings. The reduction in Cassini's radio signal tells researchers how densely packed the ring particles are. Scientists can also learn about the size distributions of the particles from occultations.<br /><br />As an added (but tiny) bonus, Saturn's moon Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across) is visible as a dark speck against the planet, just outside the A ring.<br /><br />The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 2, 2005, at a distance of approximately 617,000 kilometers (383,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 37 kilometers (23 miles) per pixel.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07578.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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telfrow

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<b>The Clump/Moon Mystery</b><br /><br /><br /><i>Scientists have long suspected that small moons hiding among Saturn's ring strands might be producing some of the unusual structure observed in the F ring. While the shepherd moon Prometheus is the main culprit behind the strange behavior of Saturn's F ring, it cannot explain all observed features. The current dilemma facing scientists is that Cassini is detecting extended objects like those pictured here -- that may be either solid moons or just loose clumps of particles within the ring.<br /><br />This montage of four enhanced Cassini narrow-angle camera images shows bright clump-like features at different locations within the F ring.<br /><br />Two objects in particular, provisionally named S/2004 S3 and S/2004 S6, have been repeatedly observed by Cassini over the past 13.5 months and 8.5 months, respectively. The orbits for these two objects have not yet been precisely determined, in part because perturbations from other nearby moons make the orbits of objects in this region complicated. Thus, scientists cannot be completely confident at the present time if they in fact have observed new sightings of S3 and S6, or additional transient clumps.<br /><br />The upper two images show features that may be S6. From previous observations, S6 appears to have an orbit that crosses that of the main F ring. This unexpected behavior currently is a subject of great interest to ring scientists.<br /><br />The upper left image was taken on June 21, 2005, and shows an object in the outer ringlets of the F ring. The radial (or lengthwise) extent of the feature is approximately 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles). The radial resolution on the ring is about 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.<br /><br />The image at the upper right was taken on June 29, 2005, and shows a bright feature within the F ring's inner ringlets. The radial extent of the feature seen here is about 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles); the radial resolution is 36 kilometers (22 miles</i> <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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telfrow

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<b>Arc in the Tenuous G Ring</b><br /><br /><i>This sequence of images shows a faint arc of material in Saturn's G ring, a tenuous ring outside the main ring system. These images were each taken about 45 minutes apart. During this time, the arc (slightly brighter than the ring itself) moves around the outer edge of the ring.<br /><br />The arc is visible on the lower part of the ring in the first image, just beneath the ansa (or outer edge). In the second image the arc is easily seen on the outer edge, and then faintly just above the outer edge in the third image.<br /><br />What makes this part of the G ring brighter than other parts is not clear. However, the existence of this arc might hold clues about how this ring was formed and where the material which makes up this ring comes from.<br /><br />These three images were taken in polarized near-infrared light using the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 24, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn. Resolution in the original images was about 97 kilometers (60 miles) per pixel. The images have been contrast-enhanced to aid visibility.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07718.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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telfrow

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<b>Cassini Discovers Saturn's Dynamic Clouds Run Deep</b><br /><br /><i>Cassini scientists have discovered an unexpected menagerie of clouds lurking in the depths of Saturn's complicated atmosphere. <br /><br />"Unlike the hazy, broad, global bands of clouds regularly seen in Saturn's upper atmosphere, many of the deeper clouds appear to be isolated, localized features," said Dr. Kevin H. Baines, a member of the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "They come in a large variety of sizes and shapes, including circular and oval shapes, donut shapes, and swirls." <br /><br />These clouds are deep in the atmosphere, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) underneath the upper clouds usually seen on Saturn. They also behave differently from those in the upper atmosphere and are made of different materials. They are made of either ammonium hydrosulfide or water, but not ammonia -- generally thought to comprise the upper clouds. <br /><br />Scientists are using the motions of these clouds to understand the dynamic weather of Saturn's deep atmosphere and get a three-dimensional global circulation picture of Saturn. They have mapped low-altitude winds over nearly the entire planet. Comparing these winds to the winds at higher altitudes has led them to conclude that substantial wind shears exist at Saturn's equator. These shears are similar to wind shear observed by Galileo at Jupiter, indicating that similar processes occur on both planets. The new wind speeds measured by the mapping spectrometer shows that winds blow about 275 kilometers per hour (170 miles per hour) faster deeper down than in the upper atmosphere. <br /><br />Besides the donut-shaped and other localized cloud systems, dozens of planet girdling lanes of clouds also appear in the new images. Such lanes -- known as "zones"-- are commonly seen in the upper clouds of Saturn and the other large planets. However, these deeper-level lanes are surprisingly narrow and mo</i> <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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telfrow

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<b>The F Ring's Spiral Arm</b><br /><br /><i>This map of Saturn's F ring illustrates how the ghostly strands flanking the core of this contorted ring, when examined in detail, actually form a spiral structure wound like a spring around the planet.<br /><br />Two identical maps of the F ring have been joined, side-by-side, to show the nature of the spiral more clearly. The F ring has been mapped as if it were a circular feature, so that its eccentricity is not apparent here.<br /><br />The spiral strand's path across the image begins about 350 kilometers (217 miles) inward of the F ring core at about 200 degrees longitude (bottom axis) on the right map, and moves closer to the ring core toward the left, wrapping over onto the map on the left. The strand appears to cross the ring core around 100 degrees longitude, after which the distance between the strand and the ring core increases to the left and can be followed, moving even farther outward, wrapping around to the rightmost boundary of the right-hand map and continuing to the left.<br /><br />Other spiraling structures seen in the main rings of Saturn, the density and bending waves, are initiated by the gravitational influence of an orbiting moon. Density and bending waves move across the rings because of the way that relatively massive ring particles exert a gravitational influence on each other and can all move together.<br /><br />In contrast, the F ring spiral structure contains very little mass and appears to originate from material somehow episodically ejected from the core of the F ring and then sheared out due to the different orbital speeds followed by the constituent particles.<br /><br />Scientists have speculated that the spiral may be a consequence of moons crossing the F ring and spreading its particles around.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07717.html<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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telfrow

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<b>New observations show dynamic particle clumps in Saturn's A ring</b><br /><br /><i>New observations from the Cassini spacecraft now at Saturn indicate the particles comprising one of its most prominent rings are trapped in ever-changing clusters of debris that are regularly torn apart and reassembled by gravitational forces from the planet. <br /><br />According to University of Colorado at Boulder Professor Larry Esposito of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, particle clusters in the outermost main ring, the A ring, range from the size of sedans to moving vans and are far too small to be photographed by the spacecraft cameras. The size and behavior of the clusters were deduced by a research team observing the flickering starlight as the ring passed in front of several stars in a process known as stellar occultation, he said. <br /><br />This is the first time scientists have been able to measure the size, orientation and spacing of these particle clumps in Saturn's rings, he said. Esposito is the science team leader for the Ultra Violet Imaging Spectrograph, or UVIS, a $12.5 million instrument designed and built at CU-Boulder that is riding on Cassini. <br /><br />CU-Boulder planetary scientist Joshua Colwell, UVIS science team member, said researchers believe Saturn's ring particles are made up of ice, dust and rock, and range in size from dust grains to mountains. The new observations of the particle clusters indicate the A ring is primarily empty space. <br /><br />"The spacing between the clumps as determined by UVIS data is greater than the widths of the clumps themselves," Colwell said. "If we could get close enough to the rings, these clumps would appear as short, flattened strands of spiral arms with very few particles between them." <br /><br />Colwell participated in a press briefing on new Cassini-Huygens observations at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences meeting held Sept. 4 to Sept. 9 in Cambridge, England. <br /><br />B</i> <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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telfrow

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<b> The Two Faces of Janus</b><br /><i>The Roman god Janus is usually depicted with two faces, one looking forward and one behind. Janus is captured here by Cassini, showing two faces of its own.<br />This view shows a sliver of Janus's dayside, plus much of the dark side. Part of the darkened terrain to the left is lit dimly by reflected light from Saturn, revealing craters there.<br />North on Janus is up in this image. A brightly sunlit view of Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) can be seen in PIA07529.<br />The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 2, 2005, at a distance of approximately 541,000 kilometers (336,000 miles) from Janus and at a Sun-Janus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 147 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel. The image has been contrast-enhanced and magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility.</i> <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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telfrow

Guest
<b>Older Southern Fractures?</b><br /><br /><i>Dione's southern polar region (shown here) contains fractures whose softened appearance suggests that they have different ages than the bright braided fractures seen in the image to the north. This region is also notably brighter than the near equatorial terrain at the top of the image.<br /><br />At the center, several of the bright, radial streaks mark a feature named Cassandra, which may be a rayed crater or a tectonic feature.<br /><br />This view of Dione (1,118 kilometers, or 695 miles across) captures high southern latitudes on the moon's trailing hemisphere.<br /><br />The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 1, 2005, at a distance of approximately 269,000 kilometers (167,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 41 degrees. Image scale is 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) per pixel.</i><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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