Cassini-Huygens - Cassini-Huygens Discussion

Palomar · 2004-05-27 09:37:58

http://www.saturntoday.com/news/viewpr. … 14297]Edge of globe and sweep of rings

*Lovely pic from Cassini. How can I print and frame it??

[Also includes a recent pic of Saturn via Hubble. Article discusses Hubble's "exquisite optics," i.e. it's 1 billion miles further away from Saturn than Cassini, yet its photos rival Cassini...for now, anyway].

http://www.saturntoday.com/news/viewpr. … =14293]New Cassini image: Swirls of Clouds

*Disturbed equatorial region. An earlier pic showed an oblong-shaped storm at the equator; I don't see that in this shot (could be on other side of the planet as the pic was taken). "The image was taken with the Cassini narrow angle camera on May 10, 2004, in the spectral region where methane strongly absorbs light."

Recall Saturn's wind speeds top even Jupiter's, and have been clocked at 1,100 mph.

Is it just me, or is Saturn the only thing in the Solar System equally beautiful in both color AND black/white pics?

--Cindy

REB · 2004-05-27 11:57:04

Check out these pictures Cindy;

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgibin/gs2.c … ...e=image

Palomar · 2004-05-27 12:16:43

Check out these pictures Cindy;
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgibin/gs2.c … ...e=image

*Wow, thanks REB!! The 2nd photo is from Cassini...it actually made me gasp, it is so beautiful. :*)

May 16th is when it was taken.

I love the upswept, lit arc of globe above the ring boundary. And do I spy some cloud banding from between the rings?

The gentle cloud banding...how can there be such torrential winds there? It looks so "mellow yellow."

And the shadow of Saturn's globe cast against the backside of the rings. Phenomenal...beyond words.

I wish I could ride along with Cassini. ::sigh::

--Cindy

[Hubble can take a hike on that comparison!] :laugh:

Hop · 2004-05-27 18:30:51

(snip) And I think it is fitting that they named the probe after one of the most influential and enlightened minds of all time....Constantijin Huygens...

Quite true. And especially so since Huygens discovered Titan.

Palomar · 2004-05-29 09:44:15

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish … 4]Detailed image of Saturn's storms

*Pic taken May 7. Cassini still 17-1/2 million miles away, yet Saturn already so overwhelming. Geez...trying to comprehend...

Dark spots (storms) clustered in mid-latitude region of Saturn's southern hemisphere. Largest is 1,860 miles across (about as wide as Japan is long).

In black & white, what portions of the rings you can see look ghostly.

--Cindy

cassioli · 2004-05-30 03:21:14

Guys... I thought Sojourner and Spirit/Opportunity missions had little succes probability (fotunately I was wrong!), but look at Huygens mission details:

The probe's entry into Titan's atmosphere -- which is mostly nitrogen, with some methane and argon will cause a shock wave to form in front of the 2.7-m (8.9-ft)-diameter front heat shield. The plasma in the shock, just forward of the shield, will reach a temperature of around 12,000 deg C (21,632 deg F), which is approximately twice the surface temperature of the Sun. Simultaneously, the deceleration force on the probe will reach its maximum of around 16 g. The high temperature and deceleration pressure are design drivers for most of the probe structure. The outer shell of the probe must also be able to withstand the extreme cold (-200 deg C or -392 deg F) of Titan's atmosphere without buckling

(From http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/s … .cfm]here)
12,000 degrees!
16 g!!!!
Surface mission duration: AT LEAST 3 MINUTES!!!

Luca

cassioli · 2004-05-30 13:02:27

I have a little problem with http://search.esa.int/queryIG.html?col= … &rf=3]this image

(I hope the link works, it's a dozen lines long!!!)

Look at the Mimas satellite... Is it a joke?!?!? ??? Maybe you can see it better in the http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/Sci … jpg]hi-res version

Luca

cassioli · 2004-05-30 13:05:44

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgdark … ]Deathstar link

Luca

Palomar · 2004-05-30 13:22:33

*Thanks, Josh, for re-naming the thread at my request. Might as well combine them after all. I should have done that from the start, I guess.

Go Cassini, Go Huygens! Wooooo!

--Cindy

Rxke · 2004-05-30 13:24:10

No it's not a joke, Cassioli. In fact it is the biggest impact crater in the solar-system (relative to the body)

I hope they'll get some more good pics of it, i remember as a kid, when the first lo-res pictures from the fly-by came through... Amazing! (still have the newspaper-clippings lying around)

Rxke · 2004-05-30 13:34:20

Oh, and what about Iapetus? Take a closer look...

One side black, one side white... Another oddball.

Wonders, Wonders, it's a whole 'solar' system all by its own, that place...

cassioli · 2004-05-31 00:51:17

Wonders, Wonders, it's a whole 'solar' system all by its own, that place...

Yes, both Jupiter and Sun "are" indipendent solar systems... they evn have water ice on some of their satellites! Maybe ancient Martian went there, after leaving their dried planet?
I think I remember something written by A.C.Clarke about those satellites, maybe Iapeto itself, but I can't remember well; something about an "eye" or a "big ellipse" on one satellite... does anyone remeber?

Luca

atomoid · 2004-05-31 05:17:58

No it's not a joke, Cassioli. In fact it is the biggest impact crater in the solar-system (relative to the body)
I hope they'll get some more good pics of it, i remember as a kid, when the first lo-res pictures from the fly-by came through... Amazing! (still have the newspaper-clippings lying around)

Its even more striking that this detail of that moon was discovered after the first Star Wars films. The ratio of crater/weapon to Mimas/DeathStar is just too striking for reality.
...brings up that theory about conciousness affecting quantum matter states and converging mixmatches of potential universes. be careful what you wish for they always said...

Palomar · 2004-06-02 09:14:03

http://www.saturntoday.com/news/viewsr. … ang-shaped clouds

*This just in from spaceref.com.

"Saturn's southern hemisphere shows dark spots and wisps of high clouds in this image. Note the boomerang shape of the patterns in the mid-latitude bands. The image was taken with the Cassini narrow angle camera in the near infrared on May 8, 2004, from a distance of 28.1million kilometers (17.5 million miles). Image scale is 168 kilometers (104 miles) per pixel. The image has been enhanced to aid visibility."

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-06-03 09:06:02

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=13031]May 21st pic

*Cassini 15.7 million miles from Saturn in this pic. I like to imagine I'm on a spaceship and THIS is filling the view screen! ::sigh::

Discusses Saturn's "subtle, multi-hued atmospheric bands" and the hopes Cassini will determine "the exact composition" of them. Can't get over those tans, yellows, and peach-colors. This is a "natural-color" pic.

"This image also offers a preview of the detailed survey Cassini will conduct on the planet's dazzling rings. Slight differences in color denote both differences in ring particle composition and light scattering properties."

"The image scale is 132 kilometers (82 miles) per pixel."

--Cindy

::EDIT:: Passage]http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=13030]"Passage through the Ring Plane"

(Article dated June 3, today)

"The path that lies ahead for the Cassini-Huygens mission is indicated in this image which illustrates where the spacecraft will be just 27 days from now, when it arrives at Saturn and crosses the ring plane 33 minutes before performing its critical orbital insertion maneuver.

The X indicates the point where Cassini will pierce the ring plane on June 30, 2004, going from south to north of the ring plane, 33 minutes before the main engine fires to begin orbital insertion. The indicated point is between the narrow F-ring on the left and Saturn's tenuous G-ring which is too faint to be seen in this exposure."

Go Cassini!!

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2004-06-03 15:23:15

look at this, it is an amazing picture

http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/media/ir … _178_1.jpg

This image also offers a preview of the detailed survey Cassini will conduct on the planet's dazzling rings. Slight differences in color denote both differences in ring particle composition and light scattering properties.

Images taken through blue, green and red filters were combined to create this natural color view. The image scale is 132 kilometers (82 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 Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado.

Shaun Barrett · 2004-06-04 06:09:15

Hi YLR!
It certainly is a beautiful image, but Cindy beat you to the punch on this one!

And yes, Cindy, it would be some kind of transcendental experience to look out the window of your spaceship and see such a view taking up half the sky!
I can imagine feeling a combination of excitement, for obvious reasons, but also isolation at being out in the dim cold expanses of the outer solar system. I think you could freak out if you thought how far from the 'hearth' of our beautiful golden Sun you actually were!
I'd probably feel happier with a revolutionary propulsion system which could do the return trip in, say, a few weeks. It would help to ease the agoraphobia.

Palomar · 2004-06-04 06:30:31

And yes, Cindy, it would be some kind of transcendental experience to look out the window of your spaceship and see such a view taking up half the sky!
I can imagine feeling a combination of excitement, for obvious reasons, but also isolation at being out in the dim cold expanses of the outer solar system. I think you could freak out if you thought how far from the 'hearth' of our beautiful golden Sun you actually were!
I'd probably feel happier with a revolutionary propulsion system which could do the return trip in, say, a few weeks. It would help to ease the agoraphobia.

*Uh-oh...you've gotten to know me well enough! Yeah, a Sol worshipper, being that far out.

But I'd love to spend a month out there, at least.

By the way, in both images (mine and YLR's), note again how Saturn's globe reflects a blue color above the ring boundary. I presume because of sunlight filtering through the rings, i.e. shadowing effect? I've not seen that explained. But it is FANTASTIC...absolutely no complaints from me.

--Cindy

::EDIT:: From space.com's "Astronotes" (got to copy and paste items from there):

Heading to Saturn: Four Hot Numbers

When the Huygens space probe lands in Saturn's largest moon, Titan in January it will deliver four songs recorded back in 1997 before the mission launched.

Nobody will be there to listen, but mission officials conceived the idea to help raise interest in the mission among young people. The probe is a project of the European Space Agency and it is piggybacked on NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which goes into orbit around Saturn later this month.

The music was composed by French musicians Julien Civange and Louis Haéri. The scheme, called Music2Titan, represents furthest distance at which human-made sounds will have landed on another celestial body.

The four songs, "Hot time", "Bald James Deans", "Lalala" and "No love" were recorded at the Sony Studios in New York City under the direction of producer Kirk Yano.

"Music2Titan reflects our will to embellish Earth and space with unconventional artistic projects, as well as to familiarize youngsters with space missions and the search for traces of extraterrestrial life, communicate about space science outside a scientific framework, and disseminate dreams," Civange said.

*Can listen to the songs via a link at Astronotes.

Palomar · 2004-06-08 05:47:31

http://www.saturntoday.com/news/viewsr. … 13058]Most recent release

*Moon Prometheus, knots in the F ring, the Cassini division within the rings, etc. Taken May 10.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-06-09 07:04:46

http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/imag … tml]Saturn & Enceladus

*This image from May 11; released yesterday or today. Article says Enceladus is "faintly visible"...what an understatement; I had to turn my monitor's brightness and contrast up to maximum. Moon has 310 mile diameter.

--Cindy

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2004-06-09 07:37:29

great picture of Saturn Cindy !

those are wonderful pictures, plus I had a look at space .com's big Image Archive

cassioli · 2004-06-09 11:57:13

I can't wait for new, hi-res Mimas images! :laugh:
...maybe we'll se Darth Vader, down there?... :;):

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2004-06-09 19:26:07

look at this one

Cassini-Huygens will go from 1.5 million miles from Phoebe on June 7, to only 1,240 miles away on June 11! Can't wait for the pictures!

http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/media/ir … _193_1.jpg

The three images shown here, the latest of which is twice as good as any image returned by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1981, were captured in the past week on approach to this outer moon of Saturn. Phoebe's surface is already showing a great deal of contrast, most likely indicative of topography

:band:

Palomar · 2004-06-10 05:44:40

look at this one
Cassini-Huygens will go from 1.5 million miles from Phoebe on June 7, to only 1,240 miles away on June 11! Can't wait for the pictures!
http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/media/ir … _193_1.jpg

*Yep...which is a heckuva lot closer than Voyager's fly-by.

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-04q.html]A good, brief article about Phoebe from today's spacedaily.com. Cassini rapidly approaching, and this is the mission's one opportunity to examine the moon. Phoebe has a retrograde orbit and of course they've speculated a long time it may be a Kuiper Belt object captured by Saturn's gravity.

Other information too.

Go Cassini!!

--Cindy

REB · 2004-06-10 07:43:22

Saturn in Titan’s skies

http://www.donaldedavis.com/PARTS/TITAN … /TITAN.jpg

And, while I am at it, here are some other great paintings from Don Davis;

Galileo probe in Jupiter’s skies
http://www.donaldedavis.com/PARTS/GALPR … LPROBE.jpg

Another one from Jupiter;

http://www.donaldedavis.com/DEC99NEW/DD … IOJUP3.jpg

New Mars Forums

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