Saturday, September 01, 2012 1:19:15 AM
Cassini Witnesses Seasonal Shifts on Saturn: Big Pics
by Irene Klotz
Aug. 31, 2012
Scientists using NASA's Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft have released a quartet of new pictures "for no other reason than that they are gorgeous," says Carolyn Porco, head of the Cassini imaging team at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
"Our presence at Saturn for the last eight years has made possible the sighting of subtle changes with time, and one such change is obvious here," Porco wrote in an email to Discovery News.
"As the seasons have advanced, spring has come to the north and autumn to the south throughout the Saturn system," Porco writes, noting that the azure blue of Saturn’s wintertime northern hemisphere, present when Cassini arrived in 2004, is fading.
"Now it is the southern hemisphere, in its approach to winter, that is taking on a bluish hue," she said.
The wide-angle view includes Saturn's giant moon Titan passing by (pictured above).
The mosaic combines six images -- two each of red, green and blue spectral filters -- to create this natural color view. The images were taken on May 6, 2012, as Cassini flew about 483,000 miles from Titan.
Other images show Titan, partly obscured by Saturn's rings, and the newly discovered vortex that appears in the atmosphere over the moon's southern pole. The picture, taken on May 16, at a distance of 1.9 million miles from Titan, also shows a cap of haze over the moon's north pole. Parts of the rings look darker in the center because of the planet's shadow:
Three weeks later, Cassini aimed its cameras at the night side of Titan and captured sunlight scattering through its thick atmosphere, forming a ring of color. The spacecraft was about 134,000 miles away on June 6 when this image was taken:
The last picture shows a close-up of Titan’s south polar vortex, which appears in the lower left of this image, taken on July 25, at a distance of about 64,000 miles:
Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI
Copyright © 2012 Discovery Communications, LLC
http://news.discovery.com/space/photos-cassini-saturn-season-cahnges-120831.html [no comments yet]
===
Outer Space
Published on Apr 14, 2012 by GDRProduction
Met dank aan Sander van der Berg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-zu7bJf7Xw
===
A Portrait of Saturn's Hazy Moon Titan: Big Pic
Image credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute. Color composite by Jason Major.
by Jason Major
Feb. 4, 2012
On Jan. 30, the Cassini spacecraft executed a flyby maneuver of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, passing within 19,340 miles (31,130 km) of its surface.
This color composite image of the cloud-covered moon was created by combining raw data acquired with Cassini's Imaging Science System (ISS) in red, green, blue and clear color channels. The result is a color image approximating what the human eye might see, albeit somewhat brighter due to the low levels of light at Saturn's distance from the sun.
Titan's high-level haze is visible as a pale indigo-colored ring around the moon, thicker at the poles and appearing slightly detached at the north pole, especially. This feature is referred to as the "polar hood". (North is about 45º diagonal to the upper left.)
The haze is composed of complex hydrocarbons, the result of sunlight breaking down methane in the moon's atmosphere. It rises higher above Titan's surface than our own atmosphere -- up to ten times higher!
The dark features on Titan's surface are vast fields of gigantic dunes, also made of hydrocarbons and standing hundreds of feet high. They cover a total area roughly the size of the United States.
At 3,200 miles (5,150 km) wide, Titan is the second-largest moon in the solar system (Jupiter's Ganymede is the first) but the only moon known to possess a substantial atmosphere.
See more images from Cassini on the JPL mission page [ http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] and on the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPS) site [ http://ciclops.org/?js=1 ].
Copyright © 2012 Discovery Communications, LLC
http://news.discovery.com/space/big-pic-hazy-titan-atmosphere-120204.html [no comments yet]
===
Hubble Captures Saturn's Aurorae
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZAAuTXQGHw
===
Cassini Buzzes Saturn's Dinky Moon Helene : Big Pics
by Ian O'Neill
June 20, 2011
June 20, 2011 -- Two days ago, NASA's Cassini spacecraft flew within 6,968 km (4,330 miles) of Saturn's moon Helene. Measuring in at only 36 × 32 × 30 km (22 × 20 × 19 miles), this dinky moon was only discovered in 1980 when astronomers realized it shared its orbit with the larger Saturnian moon Dione -- Helene trails Dione, sitting in the Saturn-Dione Lagrangian (L4) point. Helene is therefore known as a "Trojan moon," one of four known to exist in the Saturnian system [ http://news.discovery.com/space/big-pic-cassini-equinox-calypso-saturn.html ].*
As Helene is so small, it doesn't have a significant gravitational field to shape its body into a smooth sphere -- a state known as hydrostatic equilibrium [ http://news.discovery.com/space/plutos-dwarf-planet-family-is-about-to-get-bigger.html ]. It is therefore a very lumpy moon. Helene also features impact craters and gully-like structures. Interestingly, the moon also features "two faces" -- one side is smooth and apparently covered in dust, while the other side is craggy and pockmarked in craters.
Although this was a close pass, in March 2010, Cassini got even closer to Helene during a 1,820 km (1,131 mile) flyby [ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002385/ ]. However, on this occasion, Cassini imaged Helene's night side to its sunlit side, catching a beautiful crescent in the process (pictured below).
*Interestingly, this is how Helene got its name; after Helen of Troy, the granddaughter of Cronus (Saturn) in Greek mythology.
Credit/source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute [ http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassinifeatures/feature20110620/ ]
Copyright © 2011 Discovery Communications, LLC
http://news.discovery.com/space/big-pic-cassini-helene-saturn-moon-flyby-110620.html [with comments]
===
(linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=79158682 and preceding (and any future following)
by Irene Klotz
Aug. 31, 2012
Scientists using NASA's Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft have released a quartet of new pictures "for no other reason than that they are gorgeous," says Carolyn Porco, head of the Cassini imaging team at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
"Our presence at Saturn for the last eight years has made possible the sighting of subtle changes with time, and one such change is obvious here," Porco wrote in an email to Discovery News.
"As the seasons have advanced, spring has come to the north and autumn to the south throughout the Saturn system," Porco writes, noting that the azure blue of Saturn’s wintertime northern hemisphere, present when Cassini arrived in 2004, is fading.
"Now it is the southern hemisphere, in its approach to winter, that is taking on a bluish hue," she said.
The wide-angle view includes Saturn's giant moon Titan passing by (pictured above).
The mosaic combines six images -- two each of red, green and blue spectral filters -- to create this natural color view. The images were taken on May 6, 2012, as Cassini flew about 483,000 miles from Titan.
Other images show Titan, partly obscured by Saturn's rings, and the newly discovered vortex that appears in the atmosphere over the moon's southern pole. The picture, taken on May 16, at a distance of 1.9 million miles from Titan, also shows a cap of haze over the moon's north pole. Parts of the rings look darker in the center because of the planet's shadow:
Three weeks later, Cassini aimed its cameras at the night side of Titan and captured sunlight scattering through its thick atmosphere, forming a ring of color. The spacecraft was about 134,000 miles away on June 6 when this image was taken:
The last picture shows a close-up of Titan’s south polar vortex, which appears in the lower left of this image, taken on July 25, at a distance of about 64,000 miles:
Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI
Copyright © 2012 Discovery Communications, LLC
http://news.discovery.com/space/photos-cassini-saturn-season-cahnges-120831.html [no comments yet]
===
Outer Space
Published on Apr 14, 2012 by GDRProduction
Met dank aan Sander van der Berg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-zu7bJf7Xw
===
A Portrait of Saturn's Hazy Moon Titan: Big Pic
Image credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute. Color composite by Jason Major.
by Jason Major
Feb. 4, 2012
On Jan. 30, the Cassini spacecraft executed a flyby maneuver of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, passing within 19,340 miles (31,130 km) of its surface.
This color composite image of the cloud-covered moon was created by combining raw data acquired with Cassini's Imaging Science System (ISS) in red, green, blue and clear color channels. The result is a color image approximating what the human eye might see, albeit somewhat brighter due to the low levels of light at Saturn's distance from the sun.
Titan's high-level haze is visible as a pale indigo-colored ring around the moon, thicker at the poles and appearing slightly detached at the north pole, especially. This feature is referred to as the "polar hood". (North is about 45º diagonal to the upper left.)
The haze is composed of complex hydrocarbons, the result of sunlight breaking down methane in the moon's atmosphere. It rises higher above Titan's surface than our own atmosphere -- up to ten times higher!
The dark features on Titan's surface are vast fields of gigantic dunes, also made of hydrocarbons and standing hundreds of feet high. They cover a total area roughly the size of the United States.
At 3,200 miles (5,150 km) wide, Titan is the second-largest moon in the solar system (Jupiter's Ganymede is the first) but the only moon known to possess a substantial atmosphere.
See more images from Cassini on the JPL mission page [ http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] and on the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPS) site [ http://ciclops.org/?js=1 ].
Copyright © 2012 Discovery Communications, LLC
http://news.discovery.com/space/big-pic-hazy-titan-atmosphere-120204.html [no comments yet]
===
Hubble Captures Saturn's Aurorae
Uploaded by DiscoveryNetworks on Feb 11, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZAAuTXQGHw
===
Cassini Buzzes Saturn's Dinky Moon Helene : Big Pics
by Ian O'Neill
June 20, 2011
June 20, 2011 -- Two days ago, NASA's Cassini spacecraft flew within 6,968 km (4,330 miles) of Saturn's moon Helene. Measuring in at only 36 × 32 × 30 km (22 × 20 × 19 miles), this dinky moon was only discovered in 1980 when astronomers realized it shared its orbit with the larger Saturnian moon Dione -- Helene trails Dione, sitting in the Saturn-Dione Lagrangian (L4) point. Helene is therefore known as a "Trojan moon," one of four known to exist in the Saturnian system [ http://news.discovery.com/space/big-pic-cassini-equinox-calypso-saturn.html ].*
As Helene is so small, it doesn't have a significant gravitational field to shape its body into a smooth sphere -- a state known as hydrostatic equilibrium [ http://news.discovery.com/space/plutos-dwarf-planet-family-is-about-to-get-bigger.html ]. It is therefore a very lumpy moon. Helene also features impact craters and gully-like structures. Interestingly, the moon also features "two faces" -- one side is smooth and apparently covered in dust, while the other side is craggy and pockmarked in craters.
Although this was a close pass, in March 2010, Cassini got even closer to Helene during a 1,820 km (1,131 mile) flyby [ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002385/ ]. However, on this occasion, Cassini imaged Helene's night side to its sunlit side, catching a beautiful crescent in the process (pictured below).
*Interestingly, this is how Helene got its name; after Helen of Troy, the granddaughter of Cronus (Saturn) in Greek mythology.
Credit/source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute [ http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassinifeatures/feature20110620/ ]
Copyright © 2011 Discovery Communications, LLC
http://news.discovery.com/space/big-pic-cassini-helene-saturn-moon-flyby-110620.html [with comments]
===
(linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=79158682 and preceding (and any future following)
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