Cassini/Huygens Mission Update Thread Pt. 2

[telfrow]

<b>Cassini's Sept. 7, 2005, Titan Flyby</b><br /><br /><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 Sept. 7, 2005. At closest approach, the spacecraft is expected to pass approximately 1,075 kilometers (670 miles) above the moon's surface. This is Cassini's eighth flyby of Titan out of 45 flybys planned in the four-year tour. <br /><br />The colored lines delineate the regions that will be imaged at differing resolutions. <br /><br />Zooming-in closer to Titan than during its previous pass two weeks earlier, Cassini camera coverage again focuses on the region known informally as "the H". Some of the narrow-angle camera images Cassini takes during this close flyby will be composited into high-resolution mosaics, similar to PIA06222. <br /><br />This encounter also should provide an excellent view of Bazaruto Facula and its central 80-kilometer-wide (50-mile) crater, seen in PIA06234. <br /><br />The map shows only brightness variations on Titan's surface (the illumination is such that there are no shadows and no shading due to topographic variations). Previous observations indicate that due to Titan's thick, hazy atmosphere, the sizes of surface features that can be resolved are a few to five times larger than the actual pixel scale labeled on the map. <br /><br />The images for this global map were obtained using a narrow band filter centered at 938 nanometers - a near-infrared wavelength (invisible to the human eye) at which light can penetrate Titan's atmosphere to reach the surface and return through the atmosphere to be detected by the camera. The images have been processed to enhance surface details.</i> <br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07728.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>

 

[telfrow]

<b>Passing Lane</b><br /><br /><i>Prometheus has just passed - and gravitationally disturbed - some of the fine particulate material in the F ring, creating the sheared gap visible in the inner strands of the ring. Prometheus is 102 kilometers (63 miles) across.<br /><br />This view looks down from about 10 degrees above the ringplane. Prometheus and the rings are sunlit from below. At the lower right lies the outermost part of the A ring, which grows suddenly brighter outside of the 42-kilometer-wide (26-mile) Keeler Gap.<br /><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 632,000 kilometers (392,000 miles) from Prometheus and at a Sun-Prometheus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 122 degrees. Image scale is 4 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07582.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>

 

[telfrow]

<b>Titan Flyby -- Sept. 7, 2005</b><br /><br /><i>This is one of the first images returned from Cassini during the eight Titan flyby. The image, W00010533.jpg, was taken on Sept. 6, 2005 and received on Earth Sept. 8, 2005. The camera was pointing toward Titan at approximately 184,213 kilometers (114,464 miles) away. The image was taken using the CB3 and CL2 filters. This image has not been validated or calibrated. A validated/calibrated image will be archived with the NASA Planetary Data System in 2006. </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>

 

[telfrow]

<b>Keeler Moon and Waves</b><br /><br /><i>Cassini's cameras were retargeted to capture the tiny Keeler Gap moon S/2005 S1, visible at the center and first discovered by Cassini a few months ago. Waves raised in the gap edges by the Keeler moonlet's gravity are clearly visible here. Scientists can use the height of the waves to determine the little moon's mass.<br /><br />The Keeler moon is 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) across and orbits within its 42-kilometer (26-mile) wide gap. The much larger Encke Gap (325 kilometers, or 200 miles wide) is seen here at the upper right, minus its embedded moonlet, Pan. Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across) was discovered in images from NASA's Voyager spacecraft.<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 853,000 kilometers (530,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel. The image has been contrast-enhanced and magnified by a factor of three to aid visibility.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07584.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>

 

[telfrow]

<b>Monitoring 'Fensal-Aztlan'</b><br /><br /><i>During its Sept. 7, 2005, flyby of Titan, Cassini acquired images of territory on the moon's Saturn-facing hemisphere that were assembled to create this mosaic. <br /><br />Once known only as "the H" because the region looks something like the letter on its side, features in this region now possess provisional names assigned by the International Astronomical Union (see: http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/). The northern branch of the H is now called "Fensal," while the southern branch is known as "Aztlan." <br /><br />Fensal is littered with small "islands" ranging in size from 5 to 40 kilometers (3 to 25 miles) across. These landforms currently are thought to be water ice upland areas, surrounded by shallower terrain that is filled-in with dark particulate material from the atmosphere. A few larger islands are also seen, like Bazaruto Facula (near right, containing a dark crater), and several islands in western Fensal. When viewed in images of Shangri-La (on the other side of Titan), island-like landforms of this size tend to occur in clusters with apparent preferred orientations. The small islands in Fensal appear much more scattered (and most appear roughly circular), although a few islands do have an east-west orientation to their long axis. <br /><br />Aztlan, on the other hand, appears comparatively devoid of small islands, with three large islands in its western reaches, plus only a few smaller islands. The largest of these islands is called "Sotra Facula" (just right of center in the bottom left mosaic frame), and measures 240 by 120 kilometers (149 to 75 miles) across. <br /><br />The territory covered by this mosaic is similar to that seen in http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia06222.html, which is composed of images from Cassini's March 2005</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>

 

[chew_on_this]

A Huygens rover would have been awesome. Maybe next time. Hope I'm still around for it.

 

[chew_on_this]

Per CICLOPS:<br /><br />Finally ... Spokes!<br />After much anticipation, Cassini has finally spotted the elusive spokes in Saturn's rings.<br /><br />Spokes are the ghostly radial markings discovered in the rings by NASA's Voyager spacecraft 25 years ago. Since that time, spokes had been seen in images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope but had not, until now, been seen by Cassini.<br /><br />These three images, taken over a span of 27 minutes, show a few faint, narrow spokes in the outer B ring. The spokes are about 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) long and about 100 kilometers (60 miles) wide. The motion of the spokes here is from left to right. They are seen just prior to disappearing into the planet’s shadow on the rings.<br /><br />At the bottom left corner of the left and center images, the bright inner edge of the A ring is visible. Continuing radially inward (or toward Saturn) are several bands that lie within the Cassini Division, bounded by the bright outer edge of the B ring. The rounded shadow of Saturn cuts across the rings in the image at right.<br /><br />Cassini’s first sighting of spokes occurs on the unilluminated side of the rings, in the same region in which they were seen during the Voyager flybys. Although the most familiar Voyager images of spokes showed them on the sunlit side of the rings, spokes also were seen on the unilluminated side.<br /><br />In Voyager images, when spokes were seen at low phase angles, they appeared dark; when seen at high phase angles, they appeared bright. The spokes seen here are viewed by Cassini at a very high phase angle, which is about 145 degrees at the center of each image.<br /><br />Imaging team members will be studying the new spoke images and will maintain their vigil for additional spoke sightings.<br /><br />These images were taken using the clear filters on Cassini’s wide angle camera on September 5, 2005 from a mean distance of 318,000 kilometers (198,000 miles) from Saturn. The radial scale on the rings (the image

 

[telfrow]

<b>Pan's Corridor</b><br /><br /><i>Saturn's moon Pan occupies the Encke Gap at the center of this image, which also displays some of the A ring's intricate wave structure. Pan is 26 kilometers (16 miles) across.<br /><br />The two most prominent bright banded features seen on the left side of the image are spiral density waves, which propagate outward through Saturn's rings. The bright crests represent areas with higher ring particle densities.<br /><br />The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 1, 2005, at a distance of approximately 794,000 kilometers (493,000 miles) from Pan. The image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07587.html<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>

 

[telfrow]

<b>Vortex Variety</b><br /><br /><i>The latitude bands and swirling storms of Saturn, always intriguing to scientists, often are exquisitely beautiful as well. The turbulent atmosphere is dotted with storms; most are small, but some are much larger. The dark center of the dramatic beauty swirling near the south pole is easily 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) across.<br /><br />The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 31, 2005, using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of polarized infrared light centered at 752 nanometers at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 78 kilometers (48 miles) per pixel.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07588.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>

 

[imran10]

<b>Cassini radar show dramatic shoreline on Titan</b><br /><br /><i>Images returned during Cassini's recent flyby of Titan show captivating evidence of what appears to be a large shoreline cutting across the smoggy moon's southern hemisphere. Hints that this area was once wet, or currently has liquid present, are evident.</i><br /><br />http://www.spaceflightnow.com/cassini/050916titanshoreline.html

 

[telfrow]

<b>Canyonlands of Titan</b><br /><br /><i>Fluids have flowed and cut these deeply-incised channels into the icy surface of Titan as seen in this Synthetic Aperture Radar image. The channels are roughly 1 kilometer across (0.6 miles) and perhaps 200 meters deep (650 feet); some can be traced as far as 200 kilometers (120 miles). Many of them have angular segments suggesting they may follow faults in Titan’s crust. <br /><br />Taken together with the two other radar passes (October 2004 and February 2005), these very high resolution images have identified at least two distinct types of drainage and channel formation on Titan. The style shown in this image consists of long valleys following angular patterns without many tributaries, suggesting that fluids flow over great distances. By contrast, (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia03565.html) shows channels that form a denser network that might indicate rainfall. <br /><br />This Cassini radar image was acquired as a part of the Titan flyby observations taken on Sept. 7, 2005, from a distance of about 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles). The area is located at about 55 degrees south latitude, 7.5 degrees west longitude and extends over 300 kilometers (186 miles) right to left.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia03564.html <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>

 

[telfrow]

<b>Titan's Rain Drains to the Plains</b><br /><br /><i>In contrast to http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia03564.html, this bright terrain is cut by channels that are variable in width; they form both radial and branching networks. Such patterns are reminiscent of networks formed by rainfall on Earth. <br /><br />At the bottom of the frame, the channels radiate from a possible source into a dark, smooth region that seems flatter and more plains-like. One interpretation is that the higher, rougher terrain has been cleansed of organic debris and eroded by methane rainfall. The removed material has then been deposited into the lower plains. <br /><br />This Cassini Synthetic Aperture Radar image of Titan was taken on Sept. 7, 2005, at a distance of 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) from Titan. It is located near 48 degrees south latitude, 14 degrees west longitude and extends about 240 kilometers (150 miles) right to left.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia03565.html <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>

 

[paulolearysp]

How long could it take to put a rover on Titan?

 

[telfrow]

<b>Profile of Odysseus</b><br /><br /><i>The profile of the 450-kilometer-wide (280-mile) crater Odysseus makes this image look as if someone sliced off a chunk of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across). According to measurements made in Voyager images, the crater rim rises to about 5 kilometers (3 miles) above the surrounding terrain.<br /><br />This view shows territory eastward of a previously released Cassini view that looked more directly into the giant impact basin (see PIA07557). The moon's equatorial dark band can be seen here as well.<br /><br />This view shows principally the southern leading hemisphere of Tethys. North is up and rotated 10 degrees to the left.<br /><br />The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 31, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 18 degrees. The image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07589.html<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>

 

[telfrow]

<b>PIA07590: Three Views of Saturn (Animation)</b><br /><br />http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07590<br /><br /><br /><i>This unique movie, showing Saturn's rotation in three different spectral filters, demonstrates Cassini's ability to probe various levels within the planet's outer cloud layers. <br /><br />From left to right, the three panes show the atmosphere at infrared wavelengths 752, 728 and 890 nanometers. The filter used at the left is seeing the "deep cloud" layer, which has more features than any other Cassini view. The filter at the right shows the highest altitude cloud layers. <br /><br />Cassini's powerful cameras reveal atmospheric processes beneath the layer visible to the human eye, but these views show only the thinnest outer skin of the planet, whose radius is about 60,000 kilometers (37,000 miles). The altitude difference between the left and right panels is estimated to be in the range of 30 to 100 kilometers (20 to 60 miles). <br /><br />Although the left and center panels sample wavelengths that are relatively close together, the different morphology seen in these panels shows that the two filters are sampling different heights. <br /><br />The movie covers a period of about 95 minutes and consists of 31 images in each of the three panes. One Saturn rotation is about 10.7 hours long (determined by the rotation of the planet's magnetic field). <br /><br />The movie has been compressed to decrease the overall file size, and as a result, some small artifacts are present. However, all of the large-scale features visible here are real. <br /><br />Cassini captured the images comprising this movie with its wide angle camera on June 21, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles). The image scale is about 125 kilometers (78 miles) per pixel. </i><br /><br />Frame from animation:<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>

 

[brucegagnon]

IF THIS THING HAD CRASHED WE WOULD ALL BE DEAD DEAD DEAD!!!!!!<br /><br />FOLLOW ME!!!! FOLLOW ME!!!!! FOLLOW ME!!!!<br /><br /><br />TO BE FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[brucegagnon]

CENSORSHIP!!!!!!!!! CENSORSHIP!!!!!!!!!!!! <br /><br />YOU ARE ALL EVIL LITTLE TROLLS!!!!!!! <br /><br />YOU CANT CENSOR ME!!!!!! <br /><br />STOP DELETING MY POSTS!!!!!!!! <br /><br />ILL TELL THE WORLD!!!!!!! <br /><br />BUSH BROKE INTO MY HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!<br /><br />YOU CANT CENSOR ME!!!!!! <br /><br />ILL TELL THE WORLD!!!!!!! <br /><br />WAKE UP!!!!! <br /><br />No Weapons in Space! <br /><br />No Nuclear Rocket! <br /><br />End the War in Iraq! <br /><br />Fund Human Needs! <br /><br />KEEP SPACE FOR PEACE WEEK <br />October 1-8, 2005 <br />Worldwide Actions <br /><br />"Come Together Right Now" <br />Organising Stories from a Fading Empire <br />new book by Bruce Gagnon <br /><br />BUSH SEEKS MILITARY CONTROL OF SPACE <br />By Bruce Gagnon <br /><br />JAPAN JOINS DANGEROUS RACE <br />IN SPACE <br />Award winning article by Bruce Gagnon <br /><br />THE PEOPLE WILL WIN!!!!!! <br /><br />JOIN ME AND FIGHT SPACEFLIGHT!!!!!!! <br /><br />YOU ARE THE TROLLS!!!!! YOU BROKE INTO MY HOME!!!!! <br /><br />CENSORSHIP!!!!!!!!! CENSORSHIP!!!!!!!!!!!! <br /><br />YOU CANT CENSOR ME!!!!!! <br /><br />STOP DELETING MY POSTS!!!!!!!! <br /><br /><br />ILL TELL THE WORLD!!!!!!! <br /><br />YOU CANT CENSOR ME!!!!!! <br /><br />ILL TELL THE WORLD!!!!!!! <br /><br />WAKE UP!!!!! <br /><br />No Weapons in Space! <br /><br />No Nuclear Rocket! <br /><br />End the War in Iraq! <br /><br />Fund Human Needs! <br /><br />KEEP SPACE FOR PEACE WEEK <br />October 1-8, 2005 <br />Worldwide Actions <br /><br />"Come Together Right Now" <br />Organising Stories from a Fading Empire <br />new book by Bruce Gagnon <br /><br />BUSH SEEKS MILITARY CONTROL OF SPACE <br />By Bruce Gagnon <br /><br />JAPAN JOINS DANGEROUS RACE <br />IN SPACE <br />Award winning article by Bruce Gagnon <br /><br />THE PEOPLE WILL WIN!!!!!! <br /><br />JOIN ME AND FIGHT SPACEFLIGHT!!!!!!! <br /><br />I WILL KILL NASA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[earth_bound_misfit]

Guys, is there anymore info beening released, that was collected by Huygens? Or is that what we've seen so far it? If there's no more, I would have to say thet the science from this probe was a little disappointing (great work getting it there though). <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p><p>----------------------------------------------------------------- </p><p>Wanna see this site looking like the old SDC uplink?</p><p>Go here to see how: <strong>SDC Eye saver </strong>  </p> </div>

 

[telfrow]

<b>Sweeping Ring View</b><br /><br /><i>A grandiose gesture of gravity, Saturn's icy rings fan out across many thousands of kilometers of space. The moon Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across) dutifully follows its path, like the billions and billions of particles comprising the rings. The little moon is seen at the center of this view, within the Encke gap.<br /><br />The famous Cassini Division spans upper left corner of the scene. The Cassini Division is approximately 4,800-kilometers-wide (2,980 miles) and is visible in small telescopes from Earth.<br /><br />The narrow, knotted F ring is thinly visible just beyond the main rings.<br /><br />The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 20, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.1 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale on Pan is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07591.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>

 

[telfrow]

<b>A Shadowy Figure</b><br /><br /><i>The "flying saucer" in this image is the small moon Atlas (20 kilometers, 12 miles across), whose shadowy profile reveals its flattened shape. This image looks down onto the outer A ring, and through the Encke and Keeler gaps.<br /><br />Two distinct, thin strands in the F ring are visible here, silhouetted against the planet. Saturn's extended, high-altitude haze is seen near lower right.<br /><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 489,000 kilometers (304,000 miles) from Atlas and at a Sun-Atlas-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 138 degrees. The image scale is 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07592.html<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>

 

[telfrow]

<b>Cassini Zooms in on Tethys and Hyperion</b><br />by Emily Lakdawalla<br />September 22, 2005<br /><br /><i>Cassini is prepared for two close encounters in two days. On Saturday, September 24 at 02:42 UTC, the spacecraft will zoom within 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) of the giant canyon of Ithaca Chasma on Tethys. Cassini will follow the stunt with an even closer, 514-kilometer (319-mile) flyby of Hyperion on Monday, September 26 at 02:25 UTC. Both flybys will be the best views that Cassini will get of the moons during its planned tour of the Saturn system, so the science plans are packed with every kind of observation necessary to tease out the geologic histories of these worlds. During the same days, Cassini will be acquiring a once-in-the-mission radiometry data set on Saturn. And the spacecraft will pass through not one but two hazardous dust crossings. And as the encounter begins it will get a close look at one of the tinier Saturnian moons, Calypso. <br />It's a busy schedule, but it wasn't originally planned that way, as Cassini mission planner Amanda Hendrix explains. "Tethys was targeted flyby that we decided to add just back in March. We were going to do observations of Tethys anwyay, but they were going to be much more distant. One of the navigators, Brent Buffington, was looking at opportunities and he found that at not a very high delta-V cost at all, we could go in much closer to Tethys and get a really good look at Ithaca Chasma. Also a result of the tweak we're also closer to Hyperion than we were going to be."<br /><br />Although it packs the schedule, the tweak brings the opportunity for important science to be performed at Tethys. "We didn't have any targeted flybys of Tethys planned in the tour at all," Hendrix says. "Now we have this one. But it's not a normal targeted flyby where we dedicate plus or minus 12 hours to it, because it was added late -- we had observations already planned of other targets. But we are dedicating a few hours to Tethys, and</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>

 

[Leovinus]

I can see the tabloids now: "NASA confirms flying saucer at Saturn!" <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[telfrow]

I'm just waiting to see which website "breaks" the story first... <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>

 

[chew_on_this]

Got too mesmerized by the unblinking Mimas. So I made it blink(hopefully).

 

[telfrow]

<b>Stormy Days</b><br /><br /><i>Cassini's prying infrared vision allows details of Saturn's storm-ridden hydrogen atmosphere to be revealed as never before.<br /><br />North of the dark south polar region is what may be a "polygonal wave" structure developing in the atmosphere. Such a wave was seen in the northern polar region in images from NASA's Voyager spacecraft and had a hexagon shape that surrounded the pole.<br /><br />This view has been magnified and enhanced to improve contrast in the visible features. The image was taken using a compression scheme that decreases image file size for storage onboard the spacecraft, and thus the image appears slightly blocky, or "pixelated" following enhancement.<br /><br />The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 31, 2005, through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 36 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 78 kilometers (48 miles) per pixel.</i><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07593.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>