Tag: saturn

14 posts since May 2012 RSS

  • March 7th, 2017 1:24pm

    sagansense:

    Though NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is sadly nearing the end of its mission, the brave li’l orbiter is putting on quite the grand finale. Cassini, which is currently in its ring-grazing phase around Saturn, has just sent back some stunning images of the gas giant’s many rings.

    According to NASA, the new pictures are some of the “closest-ever images of the outer parts of the main rings,” which is exciting for scientists and stargazers alike. Cassini has taken many images of the rings before, but they’ve never been anywhere close to this level of detail.

    The new images reveal up-close views of “propellers,” or structures that look like gaps in the rings caused by one of Saturn’s 62 moons. Gravity wakes, also called “straws, ”are likewise very visible in the new photos.

    Luckily for us Earthlings, we can expect way more cool images of Saturn’s rings in the coming months. But unfortunately for Cassini, her 20-year-long mission will end in April, when she plunges herself into Saturn’s atmosphere. Sad!

    RIP (Almost).

    Rae Paoletta  @payoletter  

    Space Writer, @gizmodo

  • February 28th, 2014 3:56am

    thedemon-hauntedworld:

    Saturn’s Rings from the Dark Side
    From Earth, we usually see Saturn’s rings from the same side of the ring plane that the Sun illuminates them — one might call this the bright side. Geometrically, in the above picture taken in August by the robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn, the Sun is behind the camera but on the other side of the ring plane. Such a vantage point gives a breathtaking views of the most splendid ring system in the Solar System. Strangely, the rings have similarities to a photographic negative of a front view. For example, the dark band in the middle is actually the normally bright B-ring. The ring brightness as recorded from different angles indicates ring thickness and particle density of ring particles. At the top right of the frame is Saturn’s moon Tethys, which although harder to find, contains much more mass than the entire ring system.

    Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA

  • February 15th, 2014 2:22am

    kenobi-wan-obi:

    A Decade of Saturn by David Kolb

    Here is an animation of Saturns rings covering a ten year time span from 2003 through 2013. The images were taken with an eight inch Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, and various web cameras.

  • August 17th, 2013 6:46pm

    knowledgethroughscience:

    The Moving Moons of Saturn – Mimas and Enceladus.
    The above time lapse movie was created by the Saturn-orbiting robotic Cassini spacecraft over a period of about 40 minutes.
    (Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA)

  • July 23rd, 2013 1:32am


    kosmonautica:

    This is a true color composite of Saturn and Earth as seen by the Cassini spacecraft on July 19, 2013.

  • March 17th, 2013 8:40pm

    ikenbot:

    Saturn’s Hexagon

    This is a view of Saturn’s north polar region, taken by Cassini’s Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) on February 26, 2013. You can see the rings in the top of this image as well as its mysterious hexagon. — Val Klavans

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