Jump to content
Join the Unexplained Mysteries community today! It's free and setting up an account only takes a moment.
- Sign In or Create Account -

Cassini - Images of Saturn & Its Moons


Waspie_Dwarf

Recommended Posts

linked-image

Change of Season

October 14, 2008

Seasonal twilight is approaching for Saturn's south polar vortex -- the giant hurricane-like storm swirling around the planet's southern pole.

When the Cassini spacecraft arrived at Saturn in mid-2004, summer was ending in the southern hemisphere and most of the polar region south of 60 degrees latitude was in sunlight (see Southern Storms and Streaks). In the intervening years, Saturn has moved along in its 29-year orbit, and the Sun's rays have moved farther north. This seasonal change will eventually bring darkness to the southern poles of Saturn and its moons, but it will also bring their northern poles into the light.

The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 27, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 542,000 kilometers (337,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 29 kilometers (18 miles) per pixel.

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 mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Source: NASA/JPL - Cassini

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 
  • Replies 766
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Waspie_Dwarf

    678

  • frogfish

    40

  • MID

    5

  • Barek Halfhand

    5

linked-image

From A to F

October 15, 2008

The Cassini spacecraft captures signs of activity on both sides of the Roche Division -- the region between Saturn's A and F rings.

At right, the small moon Daphnis (8 kilometers, or 5 miles across) makes waves in the edges of the narrow Keeler Gap. At left are several minor kinks in the narrow core of the F ring.

This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 18 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 31, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (735,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.

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 mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Source: NASA/JPL - Cassini

Link to comment
Share on other sites

linked-image

Saturn From Below

October 16, 2008

The Cassini spacecraft looks upward at the swirling clouds of Saturn's southern hemisphere. The C and B rings are seen at right, beyond the planet's nightside limb.

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 48 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 27, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 728 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 609,000 kilometers (378,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 33 kilometers (20 miles) per pixel.

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 mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Source: NASA/JPL - Cassini

Link to comment
Share on other sites

linked-image

Eyes on the Rings

October 17, 2008

The Cassini spacecraft looks toward the sunlit face of Saturn's rings, whose shadows continue to slide southward on the planet toward their temporary disappearance during equinox in August 2009.

This two-frame color mosaic was created from images taken as part of a photometry observation of the rings. Photometry observations are useful for determining a host of ring particle properties.

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 3 degrees below the ringplane. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 22, 2008 at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (728,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 66 kilometers (41 miles) per pixel.

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 mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Source: NASA/JPL - Cassini

Link to comment
Share on other sites

linked-image

Icy Profile

October 20, 2008

The Cassini spacecraft looks toward Rhea's cratered, icy landscape with the dark line of Saturn's ringplane and the planet's murky atmosphere as a background.

Rhea is Saturn's second-largest moon, at 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.

This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from less than a degree above the ringplane.

Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 17, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (770,000 miles) from Rhea. Image scale is 7 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.

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 mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Source: NASA/JPL - Cassini

Link to comment
Share on other sites

linked-image

So Many Swirls

October 21, 2008

From high above the ringplane, the Cassini spacecraft captures a multitude of storms in the blustery cloud bands of Saturn's high north.

This view looks toward the planet from about 72 degrees north of the equator.

The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 26, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 397,000 kilometers (246,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 20 kilometers (13 miles) per pixel.

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 mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Source: NASA/JPL - Cassini

Link to comment
Share on other sites

linked-image

Bright Canyons

October 22, 2008

Dione's defining feature, the fractures on its trailing side, shine brilliantly in this Cassini spacecraft view.

The view was acquired from a position 33 degrees south of the moon's equator. Lit terrain seen here is on the trailing side of Dione (1,123 kilometers, or 698 miles across). North is up and rotated 8 degrees to the right.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 11, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 833,000 kilometers (517,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 67 degrees. Image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel.

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 mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Source: NASA/JPL - Cassini

Link to comment
Share on other sites

linked-image

Saturn in Recline

October 24, 2008

The serene beauty of Saturn invites the Cassini spacecraft's gaze as the spacecraft hurtles through this dynamic system, studying the giant planet's rings, moons, atmosphere, and magnetosphere.

The icy moon Mimas (396 kilometers, or 246 miles across) is on the planet's near side, about 180,000 kilometers (112,000 miles) closer to Cassini than Saturn, in this scene.

The view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from less than a degree below the ringplane. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 22, 2007 at a distance of approximately 927,000 kilometers (576,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 56 kilometers (35 miles) per pixel.

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 mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Source: NASA/JPL - Cassini

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You posted all of these but you didn't get the one from behind? The one I posted.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You posted all of these but you didn't get the one from behind? The one I posted.

If you are talking about the topic you started in the Space and Astronomy section called "Enchanting, or Never seen before," I posted it nearly 2 years ago, when it was first released. You can find it here: Earth: The Lone Pale Blue Dot?, Cassini Image

Link to comment
Share on other sites

linked-image

The Unlit Face

October 27, 2008

The Cassini spacecraft captures Saturn's main rings in a study of light and dark.

A bright knot is visible in the F ring near upper left. Ring scientists think features like this can be created when a small moonlet collides with the ring's core, leading to collisions that scatter fine, icy particles (see F Ring Dynamism).

This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 16 degrees above the ringplane. The edge of Saturn's shadow forms a dark wedge on the rings at right.

The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 22, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (743,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 27 degrees. Image scale is 68 kilometers (42 miles) per pixel.

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 mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Source: NASA/JPL - Cassini

Link to comment
Share on other sites

linked-image

Occulting Enceladus

October 28, 2008

Enceladus peeks over the limb of Dione during a partial occultation.

Dione (1,123 kilometers, or 698 miles across), like most of Saturn's icy moons, has a rather bright, reflective surface. But Enceladus is far and away brighter. As the most reflective body in the Solar System, Enceladus returns to space about 99 percent of the visible light that strikes it.

The spray that issues from the geologically active south polar region of Enceladus (504 kilometers, or 313 miles across) coats the moon in fresh, white ice and replenishes Saturn's E ring.

Images like this are extremely useful for scientists, as they show both moons together at approximately the same solar illumination angle. This gives a reference point for researchers to compare data about how the moons reflect light when they are not seen together on the sky.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 13, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 877,000 kilometers (545,000 miles) from Dione and 1.2 million kilometers (740,000 miles) from Enceladus. Image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel on Dione and 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel on Enceladus.

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 mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Source: NASA/JPL - Cassini

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

linked-image

Two Kinds of Wave

October 29, 2008

Many features in Saturn's rings are thought to be induced by the gravity of the planet's moons. This view shows two different kinds of waves that are thought to be produced by different moon-related effects.

Most of the waves seen here, including the prominent feature near center, are spiral density waves. These waves wrap around the planet many times like a watch spiral. They are the result of gravitational tugs by individual moons whose orbits are in a resonance with the particles at a specific distance from Saturn.

The bright and dark areas in the wave represent more-dense and less-dense regions of the ring. For this type of wave, the wavelength--the distance between bright peaks in each wave--decreases with increasing distance from Saturn (toward left in this image).

By contrast, the wavelength of the intense feature at right decreases toward Saturn (toward right here), indicating that this is a different kind of wave called a spiral bending wave. This wave also winds multiple times around Saturn, but it represents vertical undulations in the ring plane, like a corrugated tin roof. This type of wave is produced by gravitational tugs by moons on inclined orbits as they venture just slightly out of the ringplane.

Cassini scientists will be carefully watching for shadows cast by spiral bending waves as equinox occurs in Aug. 2009 and the Sun passes from the south side of the rings to the north side. The shadows could reveal the height of the bending waves, providing an indirect way to measure key properties of the ring.

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 35 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 25, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 219,000 kilometers (136,000 miles) above the rings and at a Sun-ring-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 127 degrees. Image scale is 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) per pixel in the radial, or outward from Saturn direction and 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel in the longitudinal, or around Saturn, direction.

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 mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Source: NASA/JPL - Cassini

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
linked-image

The Storm Continues

March 29, 2006

The Cassini spacecraft looks toward giant Saturn and its moon Tethys, while a large and powerful storm rages in the planet's southern hemisphere. The storm was observed by the Cassini spacecraft beginning in late Jan. 2006, and was at the time large and bright enough to be seen using modest-sized telescopes on Earth.

The fact that the storm stands out against the subtle banding of Saturn at visible wavelengths suggests that the storm's cloud tops are relatively high in the atmosphere.

Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Feb. 18, 2006, at a distance of approximately 2.8 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 162 kilometers (101 miles) per pixel on Saturn.

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 mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org .

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Source: NASA/JPL - Cassini

Is that a moon in that photo?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is that a moon in that photo?

The Cassini spacecraft looks toward giant Saturn and its moon Tethys....Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across.

Yes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Thruster swap planned aboard the Cassini spacecraft

NASA/JPL NEWS RELEASE

Posted: February 3, 2009

PASADENA, Calif. -- The Cassini spacecraft will swap to a backup set of propulsion thrusters in mid-March due to degradation in the performance of the current set of thrusters.

The thrusters are used for making small corrections to the spacecraft's course, for some attitude control functions, and for making angular momentum adjustments in the reaction wheels, which also are used for attitude control.

The current set of eight thrusters, referred to as branch A, has been in use since Cassini's launch more than 11 years ago. The redundant set, branch B, is an identical set of eight thrusters.

Propulsion engineers began to see a lower performance from one of the thrusters on branch A in October. A second branch A thruster is also now showing some degraded performance.

An extensive review with the propulsion system contractor, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, Colo., the thruster manufacturer, Aerojet, Sacramento, Calif., and propulsion experts at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., was completed last week. The recommendation was made to swap to side B as soon as is practical.

Mid-March is the earliest practical opportunity to make the swap. This allows time for the team to properly test and prepare the sequence of commands that will be sent to the spacecraft. Science planners have identified a period where no high-priority science will be lost during the switch, which will be done over a seven-day window. It also is a time when no navigation maneuvers are required to maintain the spacecraft's trajectory.

The swap involves commanding a latch valve to open hydrazine flow to the B side, and powering on some thruster control electronics. No pyrotechnic devices are involved in the swap, and the action is fully reversible if necessary.

Almost all Cassini engineering subsystems have redundant backup capability. This is only the second time in Cassini's 11 years of flight that the engineering teams have gone to a backup system. The backup reaction wheel was brought online a few years ago and is currently functioning as one of the three prime wheels.

Cassini successfully completed its four-year planned tour and is now in extended mission operations.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL.

From : SpaceFlight Now: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0902/03cassini/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Almost all Cassini engineering subsystems have redundant backup capability. This is only the second time in Cassini's 11 years of flight that the engineering teams have gone to a backup system. The backup reaction wheel was brought online a few years ago and is currently functioning as one of the three prime wheels.

From : SpaceFlight Now: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0902/03cassini/

Not bad for 11 years of flight including multiple telemetry modifications in Saturian orbit to give us those spectacular Titan flybys :tu:

if only the big three could make cars that reliable ;)

Edited by BorisTheSpider2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.