Cassini-Huygens *2* - ...more Saturn/Titan...

Shaun Barrett · 2004-12-29 15:24:42

That's great news about the Cassini deflection manoeuvre. :up:

And Titan's flattened North Pole .. hmm .. fascinatinger and fascinatinger!!
What a year we've had!

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2004-12-30 07:07:33

Excellent. Now we just have to wait til Jan 14th. I'll make sure to clear my schedule that day.

Ok, Sorry if this one has been posted already but I have not spotted it in any links
So if it is just ignore

However, its still a Great picture !!

http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/media/ir … 1357_1.jpg

lovely color portrait of Saturn and two of its moons.

The planet’s northern extremes have a cool bluish hue, due to scattering of blue wavelengths of sunlight by the cloud-free upper atmosphere there. Long shadows of the icy rings stretch across the north.
A grayish, oval-shaped storm is visible in Saturn’s southern hemisphere and is easily 475 kilometers (295 miles) across – the size of some hurricanes on Earth.

:band:

Palomar · 2004-12-30 08:37:17

The planet’s northern extremes have a cool bluish hue, due to scattering of blue wavelengths of sunlight by the cloud-free upper atmosphere there. Long shadows of the icy rings stretch across the north.

*Yes, and what blue. We knew about the shadowing effects of the rings, etc., but until Cassini we've not seen such detail in this regard (unless there are some Voyager images out there I missed somehow or forgot!). Orange (or, in this case, yellow-orange) and blue just happens to be one of my favorite color combinations...heck, Saturn can do no wrong in my books!

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.htm … ]Saturnian methane plays crucial role in planet formation

*Time for some hard science. The CIRS infrared spectrometer was used in this study. With it, they've measured the chemical composition, temperature and winds of Saturn, the rings and the moon Phoebe. A few quotes:

Methane (CH4), the principal component of natural gas, is the main indicator of carbon on Saturn and Jupiter, and it plays a crucial role in the planet's atmospheric chemistry and history of formation.

The methane measurement shows that carbon is enriched on Saturn by seven times the amount found in the Sun and two times the amount found on Jupiter, which is consistent with the rocky core hypothesis of giant planet formation. In this model, Jupiter and Saturn began formation by accreting cores of about 10-12 times the size of Earth's mass of heavy elements, which, in turn, attracts the surrounding nebular gas in solar proportions.

--Cindy

GraemeSkinner · 2004-12-31 03:42:13

Nice little article http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004 … 90714]here

Radio signals from Saturn take 1 hour and 8 minutes to reach Earth. "We can't wait to get the data," says McEwen

I think I can echo that comment.

Graeme

Palomar · 2004-12-31 07:00:48

Cassinis]http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=15799]Cassini's New Year's Eve Bash!

*Flyby of Iapetus. :;):

"I can think of no better way than this to wrap up what has been a whirlwind year," said Robert T. Mitchell, program manager for the Cassini mission

Says 2005 will be the Year of the Icy Satellites. There'll be 13 encounters with 5 of Saturn's moons, 8 of which will involve Titan apparently.

More speculation as to Iapetus' split personality.

--Cindy

::EDIT:: Tethys]http://www.spaceflightnow.com/cassini/041230tethys.html]Tethys' Great Rift Ithaca Chasma is featured -- 60 miles wide in some places and runs nearly 3/4 the entire length of the moon. Multi-ring impact basin too.

alan · 2004-12-31 16:03:57

new images at cassini homepage
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/i … ...247.jpg

Shaun Barrett · 2005-01-03 22:23:55

Hi Alan.
Can't remember if I welcomed you to New Mars or not. If not, sorry, and glad to have you aboard!

That photo you linked for us is very interesting; it looks like one of Saturn's moons has a seam running around it! I guess that's where the aliens joined the two halves together when they constructed it.

alan · 2005-01-04 00:11:24

Iapetus keeps getting weirder, not only is one side dark and the other bright but the dark side looks like it has a seam where it was put together while the bright side is full of fractrues like it is coming apart.
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/i … ...438.jpg
The fractures are easier to see if you download the image and rotate it 90 degrees couterclockwise so the curved horizon is at the top.

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2005-01-04 09:58:03

Rhea has a New Crater ?
Fresh Cratering ?

the moon displays what may be a relatively fresh, bright, rayed crater near Rhea’s eastern limb.
This view is centered on the side of Rhea that faces away from Saturn as the moon orbits.

http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/media/dr … 1178_1.jpg

Palomar · 2005-01-07 09:37:42

Rhea has a New Crater ?
Fresh Cratering ?

*Wouldn't it be magnificent if Cassini actually caught a meteor impact as it happened?

I've been waiting for images to pile up a bit before posting again. Here goes:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/i … 266]Rugged Iapetus

-*-

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/i … 1269]There IS life on Titan --

--and they wear Santa caps! :laugh: What enviable jobs they have, huh?

-*-

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/i … D=1262]Pan, Rings & Shadow

-*-

Rheas]http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1263]Rhea's ancient surface

-*-

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/i … =1259]That lovely swath of Rings...

::sigh:: When I die, I want my ashes scattered over Saturn's Rings. I mean that. Photo includes Janus and Epimetheus. Wish we could get a closeup of Epimetheus; we don't hear/see much of it.

-*-

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/i … 1267]Those bewitching, shimmering Rings...

Mimas in the photo, nearly half full.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-01-07 16:44:53

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.htm … 47]Iapetus in 3D!

*Aw, dang it...I don't have a pair of 3D glasses, but can probably rustle up the wherewithal to create something similar.

Those mountains on Iapetus have everyone intrigued.

One of these features is a long narrow ridge that lies almost exactly on the equator of Iapetus, bisects its entire dark hemisphere and reaches 20 kilometers high (12 miles). It extends over 1,300 kilometers (808 miles) from side to side, along its midsection. No other moon in the solar system has such a striking geological feature. In places, the ridge is comprised of mountains. In height, they rival Olympus Mons on Mars, approximately three times the height of Mt. Everest, which is surprising for such a small body as Iapetus. Mars is nearly five times the size of Iapetus.

Okay -- rivals Olympus Mons, but I was hoping (which still might be found to be the case) that this ridge would be even higher than OM.

Mentions this fly-by revealed feathery-appearing black streaks at the dark/bright hemispheres' boundary -- this region not seen before. Speculation that this indicates dark material has fallen onto Iapetus, etc. -- and further speculation as to whether the anomaly is an internal or external process (I'd lay my bets on internal).

Next fly-by of Iapetus more than 2 years away. :-\ Says resolution of those images should be 100 times better than the current ones. Are questioning whether Iapetus has been volcanically active in the past. :band:

--Cindy

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2005-01-08 19:20:52

There are some great images coming out of this mission

Let's hope the Cassini-Huygens lander will do great !!

QUOTE
This near-true color view from Cassini reveals the colorful and intriguing surface of Iapetus in unrivaled clarity.

This image shows the northern part of the dark Cassini Regio and the transition zone to a brighter surface at high northern latitudes. Within the transition zone, the surface is stained by roughly north-south trending wispy streaks of dark material. The absence of an atmosphere on Iapetus means that the material was deposited by some means other precipitation

such as ballistic emplacement of material from elsewhere on the moon, or deposition of infalling material from elsewhere in the Saturn system.

http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/media/ir … 1407_1.jpg

http://www.thespacesite.com/images/news … 05d_lg.jpg

This oblique view of Iapetus from high latitude shows how the dark, heavily cratered terrain of Cassini Regio transitions to a bright icy terrain at high latitudes.
In this mosaic of two high resolution images taken during Cassini’s New Year’s Eve 2004 flyby of Iapetus, the direction toward the north pole is approximately 15 degrees clockwise from right. At the equator, just beyond the upper-left limb of Iapetus in the mosaic, terrains are uniformly covered with a dark mantle of material that has a reflectivity of about 4 percent. At latitudes poleward of about 40 degrees, the dark deposits become patchy and diffuse as the surface transitions to a much brighter, icy terrain near the pole. The brightest icy materials exhibit visual reflectivity over 60 percent.
Superposed on the bright terrain is a subtle, ghostly pattern of crudely parallel, north-south trending wispy streaks. The streaks, which were discovered during this flyby of Iapetus, are typically a few kilometers wide and sometimes tens of kilometers long. Their appearance and orientation may be connected with the emplacement of dark materials that cover Cassini Regio.

http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/media/ir … 1411_1.jpg

Shaun Barrett · 2005-01-09 01:44:35

Yep .. some glorious pictures!
And we can expect them to get better and better as the mission continues and closer flybys are achieved.

I've seen that 3-D picture of Iapetus through filters and it does help to get an impression of the large topographic variation on this fascinating little moon. As the description states, that seam sits almost exactly on the equator and is hundreds of kilometres long. How are they going to explain such a feature?
Maybe we'll never know how it came about. ???

Really looking forward to the Huygens landing on Titan!
Hope the pictures are crystal clear and really show us the true nature of the surface. What a buzz!!
:band:

Palomar · 2005-01-09 23:36:01

I've seen that 3-D picture of Iapetus through filters and it does help to get an impression of the large topographic variation on this fascinating little moon. As the description states, that seam sits almost exactly on the equator and is hundreds of kilometres long. How are they going to explain such a feature?
Maybe we'll never know how it came about. ???
Really looking forward to the Huygens landing on Titan!
Hope the pictures are crystal clear and really show us the true nature of the surface. What a buzz!!

*I can't recall off-hand how many more fly-bys of Iapetus are expected (and it's late at night and I'm about to turn in, so haven't time to look that info up again <grin>).

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/cassini/0 … html]Giant landslide on Iapetus

The landslide material appears to have collapsed from a scarp 15 kilometers high (9 miles) that forms the rim of an ancient 600 kilometer (375 mile) impact basin. Unconsolidated rubble from the landslide extends halfway across a conspicuous, 120-kilometer diameter (75-mile) flat-floored impact crater that lies just inside the basin scarp.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/cassini/0 … ml]Iapetus: A view from the top

As for Huygens, yep...not long now. Like everyone else, I'm hoping it performs flawlessly and gets that 130 minutes on-surface (or afloat) which they're predicting is possible. :up:

--Cindy

Shaun Barrett · 2005-01-10 07:38:53

As for Huygens, yep...not long now. Like everyone else, I'm hoping it performs flawlessly and gets that 130 minutes on-surface (or afloat) which they're predicting is possible.
--Cindy

I can hardly type with all my fingers crossed like this! And as for walking - have you ever tried it with your toes crossed?!

SpaceNut · 2005-01-10 12:04:26

Live from another world

The Huygens probe separated from the Cassini orbiter last month, heading for the largest and easily the most mysterious planetary satellite in the solar system, haze-shrouded Titan. While the probe enters its dense atmosphere and slowly descends on its parachute this Friday , only sparse telemetry will be received on Earth by big radio telescopes even in the best case: The vast amount of data collected during the atmospheric part of the mission—and perhaps a few minutes on the ground—is being transmitted to the Cassini orbiter, which will eventually turn its high-gain antenna around towards Earth and starts relaying the precious data stream, including about 700 images from the probe’s Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) cameras, to Earth.

Palomar · 2005-01-12 06:43:33

*Am going to toss this bit of information into this thread:

On Thursday, January 13th, Saturn will be 750 million miles from Earth--the closest we get to the ringed planet all year long. Step outside around 7:30 p.m. and look east. Golden Saturn is easy to find next to Castor and Pollux in the constellation Gemini.

No, it doesn't pertain to Cassini -- but I'm reluctant to create a new thread for this information in the Events Calendar and risk a newcomer getting confused and wanting to post about Cassini (and Huygens) there. And then having to explain that thread is simply for viewing Saturn from Earth, please follow Cassini mission in the Unmanned Probes folder, etc., etc. To avoid that potential headache, I'm posting here.

Here's a http://www.spaceweather.com/images2005/ … th.gif]sky map for those who might be interested in seeing (to whatever degree) where Saturn is in the sky and perchance viewing it yourself via binoculars or telescope.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

--Cindy

djellison · 2005-01-12 06:53:26

Thats convenient - makes the one way light time as short as it can possibly be for relaying post-huygens landing

See - you weren't off topic at all

Doug

SpaceNut · 2005-01-12 07:42:55

EXPLORATIONS - Space Digest

A run down of current missions and there status

Palomar · 2005-01-12 11:50:26

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/i … 83]Iapetus temperature variation map

*They're speculating that the dark portion of Iapetus' surface is "extremely fluffy" because it does not store heat well. In that area, the temp around noon is -226 F, while at Solset it drops to -334. More considerations as to the role/effects the accumulation of meteor impacts has had over billions of years in that area of the moon.

-*-

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/i … 286]Aeneas on the Edge

*Crater on Dione, diameter of approximately 109 miles, central peak is roughly 2 miles high, depth of crater is approximately 2 miles. Image taken Dec. 10, 2004.

-*-

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/i … D=1285]Map of Huygens descent :up:

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-01-13 06:09:26

*Spaceweather.com is hosting an interesting bit about Huygens: Apparently it will be looking for sun halos within Titan's atmosphere (among all the other things!).

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2005/1 … pg]HaloSim calculation of what a sun halo on Titan might look like

*Interesting history bit here too:

When the Huygens probe descends through Titan's atmosphere tomorrow--a big event!--the probe's cameras will look for sun halos there, too.
"Titan's halos will be very different from ours," says atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. "Titan's atmosphere is intensely cold and may contain floating 'diamond dust' crystals not of water-ice but of frozen methane and possibly ethane. Methane crystals could be square pyramids, 8-sided octahedra or 14-sided cuboctahedra. Ethane crystals are hexagonal prisms like those of water-ice, but refracting light far more strongly."
"Whether Huygens finds halos will depend on the strength of the sunlight that penetrates Titan’s hazy skies and whether any crystals are large enough. But we shall be looking for them! Christiaan Huygens in 1655 was the first to properly explain halos – how apt if a probe named after him is the first to find them on another world."

:up:

--Cindy

Shaun Barrett · 2005-01-13 08:32:28

Sun halos, eh?!
It just keeps getting more and more exciting! :up:

Palomar · 2005-01-13 12:13:41

Sun halos, eh?!
It just keeps getting more and more exciting! :up:

*That it does!

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalo … 62]Strange Hyperion

It's my favorite of the Saturnian moons. Is thought to be the largest irregularly-shaped moon in our Solar System. I wonder about that seemingly quite circular patch of darkness on it.

Thought I should tuck this item in today, because it'll likely get steamrolled out of the way during tomorrow's event! :laugh:

Anyway, we need a flyby of Hyperion. Cute, pudgy little thing...

--Cindy

::EDIT:: Here's the http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/i … age]former image of Hyperion, posted many weeks ago. Am adding it for comparison, though its situation and the angle are different.

Rxke · 2005-01-13 14:14:02

Hi, guys!
Just a quickie here, but how's media coverage around the world?
Asking this because today (13th, on day before landing,) in Belgium, on our national TV-Channel (i.e.: non-commercial...) There's quite a bit of Huygens-mania going on...
First a short mention in the news (the typical 30 sec. newsflash)
But then later in the program "Terzake," a 'focus' progam that digs a bit deeper into stuff that's on-going, there was a 15 min topic about Huygens, consisting of a short documentary about the probe and orbiter and a very nice interview with a astronomer. The guy that did the interviews usually does interviews with politicians, but he obviously had made his homework, becuse he asked *good* questions, and the inevitable 'was the money well-spent' question was answered "YESSSS," heehee, with the interviewer certainly agreeing, for he ended with the words: "this is very fascinating!" All this during errr... late prime time: 20.44-20.55 PM, woohoo!

And... later this evening there's 40 minutes special called "inde ban van de ringen," (translates pun-like as Lord of the Rings...) starting half past ten, yeehee!

Palomar · 2005-01-13 14:31:00

Hi, guys!
Just a quickie here, but how's media coverage around the world?
Asking this because today (13th, on day before landing,) in Belgium, on our national TV-Channel (i.e.: non-commercial...) There's quite a bit of Huygens-mania going on...

*Hi Rik, nice to see you again!

Yahoo! has had Huygens on the front page all day long. Getting top billing in its science slot is an honor -- especially retaining its place in that slot all day long.

There seems to be a healthy buzz for Huygens here in the States, judging by other news items I've seen and etc. :up:

Go Huygens! :band:

--Cindy

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