Saturn's peaceful beauty invites the Cassini spacecraft for a closer look in this natural color view, taken during the spacecraft's approach to the planet. By this point in the approach sequence, Saturn was large enough that two narrow angle camera images were required to capture an end-to-end view of the planet, its delicate rings and several of its icy moons. The composite is made entire from these two images.
Moons visible in this mosaic: Epimetheus (116 kilometers, 72 miles across), Pandora (84 kilometers, 52 miles across) and Mimas (398 kilometers, 247 miles across) at left of Saturn; Prometheus (102 kilometers, 63 miles across), Janus (181 kilometers, 113 miles across) and Enceladus (499 kilometers, 310 miles across) at right of Saturn.
The images were taken on May 7, 2004 from a distance of 28.2 million kilometers (17.6 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 169 kilometers (105 miles) per pixel. Moons in the image have been brightened for visibility. 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 Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
Maybe its just me, but I can't see any moons in that picture... Posted by Jay the Obscure (Member # 19) on :
I think they are the little white dots...
Other than the dust on your monitor.
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
Still, I can only see 4 of the 6 moons...
Posted by Toadkiller (Member # 425) on :
quote:Originally posted by Veers: You know, my name's on that thing...
Vandal!
Is nothing sacred!
Posted by Jay the Obscure (Member # 19) on :
quote:Cassini Struck by Hailstorm of Ring Particles at Saturn
The Cassini spacecraft was hit by storms of dust as it passed through Saturn's rings twice just before going into orbit June 30.
Cassini sliced through known gaps in the rings so that it wouldn't be destroyed by huge icy boulders. But the gaps are not entirely empty, it turns out.
Cassini was peppered by microscopic bits of dust that slammed into it at about 45,000 mph (20 kilometers per second). At the peak of activity, 680 bits per second pummeled the probe, according to the website Science.NASA.gov.
The impacts were recorded and converted to a sound file that is available on the Internet.
"When we crossed the ring plane, we had roughly 100,000 total dust hits in less than five minutes," said Cassini science team member Don Gurnett, of the University of Iowa. Gurnett said the bits were about the size of particles in cigarette smoke.
Most of the dust hit the spacecraft's high-gain antenna, which was designed to handle such impacts. No apparent damage was done.
Each impacting particle generated a puff of superheated, ionized gas called plasma. Cassini's Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) instrument recorded the puffs.
"We converted these into audible sounds that resemble hail hitting a tin roof," said Gurnett, who is the instrument's principal investigator.
In other observations, the probe gained new insight into the composition of the icy, dirty rings. Cassini has begun a four-year tour of Saturn, with plans to study its rings and moons in several close flybys.
You can listen to this in Quicktime here.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
How odd, that's actually my desktop image at the moment - and I can make out 4 white dots at 1024x768.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
They're only just barely visible at 1024x768. It's easier to see them on the full-res version.
If you look at the one that's on the left side, above the rings, there's a fainter dot to the right of it, just near the rings. And the last one is in just about the same position on the right side of the picture.
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
quote:Originally posted by Lee: How odd, that's actually my desktop image at the moment - and I can make out 4 white dots at 1024x768.
There are SIX moons!! Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Probably behind some icons then.
Posted by Nim the Merciful (Member # 205) on :
Lee: Six, actually. You see them nicely in 1824x1360.
Yes, nicely.
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
There's a booger on your objective lens. Or possibly some turnip juice.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Yup, like I said, behind the icons. And did I mention the only PC I have at home right now is a notebook?
Posted by Nim the Merciful (Member # 205) on :
No you didn't. I'm sorry, are you holding out until the market makes further progress, like me? I'm refusing to get a new desktop until at least the 4Ghz line is passed.
But if you zoom in, you can catch the moons, right?
EDIT: I found another one! You had to up the brightness a lot, but I got the seventh moon! It's actually in the middle of the picture. It's very low orbit, so I think it's Titan or Io. Seventh moon Posted by Ultra 2 Legit 2 Magnus (Member # 239) on :
So do they play Ingmar Bergman films on Swedish TV often?
Posted by Krenim (Member # 22) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nim the Merciful: It's very low orbit, so I think it's Titan or Io.
Io is one of Jupiter's moons, not Saturn's.
Posted by Defiantly Running About (Member # 1216) on :
I'm very much looking forward to the Huygens probe landing on Titan. I understand it'll take about 1,100 images on the way down and sample the air with six instruments all the way to the bottom. It'll release from Cassini on Christmas Day, and I b'lieve it'll cruise for 20-some-odd days before beginning entry. Exciting stuff.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
It's creepy, I'm just re-reading Stephen Baxter's "Titan" which not only starts with Cassini-Huygens arriving at Saturn (God, did 2004 seem so long ago when I first read it years ago), but also early on features the losing of another Shuttle orbiter - guess which one. . .
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by Krenim:
quote:Originally posted by Nim the Merciful: It's very low orbit, so I think it's Titan or Io.
Io is one of Jupiter's moons, not Saturn's.
Saturn, Jupiter, Iraq.....whatever. T'aint our problem, right? Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
So, when is the probe going to spot a strange black object on Iapetus...?
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
About five minutes before they regretfully announce they've lost contact with the probe, and are trying to find out why.
Posted by Nim the Merciful (Member # 205) on :
Don't worry. Whatever came back to the other side, didn't live long enough to supher.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Your puns make us "supher" enough already, Nimrod.
I hear a new Venus mission is scheduled. Cant recall when though.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
One reason I, at least, haven't been too busy posting to this thread is that there isn't much to say about it, other than to just confirm that, yes, those pictures are some kind of awesome.
(That is totally my desktop image too.)
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Wahey! We're background buddies!
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
I am thinking about switching to that infrared or near-infrared picture of the surface of Titan, which just strikes me as really incredible. I mean, my mental picture of Titan, built for the most part when I was a kid watching specials about then new information from Voyager 2 is hazy and featureless and now here it is, slightly less hazy and with a couple of features.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Is that a new one? Haven't seen it yet. Must check back on the site at some point.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: Your puns make us "supher" enough already, Nimrod.
I hear a new Venus mission is scheduled. Cant recall when though.
They've detected a Vorlon ship there.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
A black object on Iapetus? Is this in like one of the 2001 sequals?
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
If you ever read the novel version of 2001 (which was written concurrently with the movie script), Iapetus was where the second monolith was located, not in orbit of Jupiter.
B.J.
Posted by Nim the Merciful (Member # 205) on :
Who is Iapetus? A Venus Rover would be nice...
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I dont think a rover on Venus would last very long. Our Mars Rovers are really not too dependable -and that's in a sterile, low gravity environment with no rain, corrosives or atmosphere to speak of.
I'd be happy with a orbiting probe and several deployable atmospheric probes at Venus' poles, seas and plains.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Well, so much for my many links about Iapetus and Titan, thanks to, I don't know, a coding issue or something.
Iapetus the dude is a Titan in Greek mythology.
Iapetus the moon is, well, a moon of Saturn. Roughly half of it is much darker than the other half, for mysterious reasons.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by Sol System: Iapetus the moon is, well, a moon of Saturn. Roughly half of it is much darker than the other half, for mysterious reasons.
Possible dust accumilation from the rin system if the moon's orbit ever passed through them, I suppose.
Or the Rigelian Valdez ran aground there. Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
Seems likely it's from running into something. Iapetus is tidelocked and the black stuff's on the leading edge.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
It's a space dalmation.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
quote:Originally posted by B.J.: If you ever read the novel version of 2001 (which was written concurrently with the movie script), Iapetus was where the second monolith was located, not in orbit of Jupiter.
B.J.
So everything in the 2001 book happened around Saturn not Jupiter?
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
quote:Originally posted by B.J.: If you ever read the novel version of 2001 (which was written concurrently with the movie script), Iapetus was where the second monolith was located, not in orbit of Jupiter.
B.J.
Oh and as I *ASKED* the question - it's clear I DID NOT read the novel version of 2001. (That's just to counter any sarcasm you intended to put in your post - if there was no sarcasm intended - then ignore this post )
Posted by Nim the Merciful (Member # 205) on :
Ok wait, so the monolith found on the moon was the first? It had gone down to the apes in prehistoric times, let them fondle it, then removed to the dirt of the moon? Then, when humans came and found it again, it sent a high-pitched ping to a counterpart in orbit of Saturn, referring them to a colleague?
Also, so that we are clear, the thing making the probe go ballistic and rocket away in the early probe-mission of 2010, those were the multitudes of monoliths acting? Shaking off intruders? And was this what happened to the cosmonaut? I never got why he had to die in the movie. Or wasn't it death, was it what Astronaut Dave's original "ascension" would've looked like from an outside perspective as well?
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
I don't think it was ever specified what monolith visited the pre-humans on Earth. If it was either of the later ones, I guess it would have to be TMA-1. The other one was huge, as I recall.
I need to re-read 2001 one of these days.
Posted by Nim the Merciful (Member # 205) on :
I thought it could change size...
I am surprised at people's reactions to 2010 (I checked imdb a little), saying it is watered-down, overexplained and spoonfed story compared to Kubrick's orgasm-inducing 2001 (to cineasts).
I think it's still lightyears ahead of action movies and modern Sci-Fi like "Contact" or "Sphere". I don't consider myself a slow person but there are elements in 2010 that are really vague and multilayered to me, following the tradition of 2001.
For instance, why make a second sun? Why issue an ultimatum to mankind? Who/what is the monolith? Is it God? If so, was God born on Europa? Is Europa God's base of operations, from which he created the universe?
And, Helen Mirren IN PERM??? What is the message here??? I want to believe!
Posted by Ultra 2 Legit 2 Magnus (Member # 239) on :
You should read 3001: Sean Bean in Space, 3061: Odyssey Too?, 4010: Dial down the Center, 5051: TMA-1 Flight 800 and 6600: WTF DOMINOES?11, I think that your questions are answered there.
Posted by Nim the Merciful (Member # 205) on :
I know they are. In ten years, I will write them and send them back in time to your mama. Also, I'm your father. Hello! Hiii! XOXOXOXO ^__^
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
In thirty years, I will send back a cyborg so advanced that basic pronounciation is beyond him- to kill you as a child.
That, or I'll just save my money and have someone pop a cheap hollowpoint in your ass.
I dont know what this has to do with 2001, but I'm very tired and in some small degree of physical pain.
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