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Cassini-Huygens Reaches Orbit Around Saturn

Posted by timothy on from the hope-it-called-ahead dept.

Mick Ohrberg writes "The probe Cassini-Huygens is now officially in orbit around Saturn. Last nights' retro-burn was completed according to plan, down to the second, which in and of itself is an amazing feat, considering all data received is 1h24m old, as well as 900 million miles away. I must say, it was fairly exciting to watch the webcast, and see the signal fade behind the A-ring, and all but disappear behind the B-ring - all in (somewhat delayed) real-time. The SOI (Saturn Orbit Insertion) also saw Cassini-Huygens whisk by Saturn at around 68,000 mph at an altitude of about 12,000 miles from the cloud tops - the closest to the gas giant the probe will ever be during its planned 4-year mission, for instance the much awaited Huygens mission to Titan."

9 of 251 comments (clear)

  1. Whoa! Now that's some lag! by rastakid · · Score: 3, Funny

    considering all data received is 1h24m old

    And we bitch when our CounterStrike match lags 300ms?!

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    In need of reliable and affordable server monitoring?
  2. Closest? by Grayswan · · Score: 3, Funny

    Won't it be closer when its orbit finally decays to 0?

    --
    If you open your mind too wide, people will throw trash in it.
  3. Re:wiki by Jugalator · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Plutonium power source and controversy".

    Yeah, it's horrible how many Saturnians it might kill while in duty. :-P

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    Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
  4. Re:Pictures. by rfinnvik · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/instruments- cassini-iss.cfm

    "Cassini's higher-resolution camera is able to see a penny, 1.5 cm (0.5 in) across, from a distance of nearly 4 km (2.5 mi)."

    Sounds like the cameras has some potential, at least :)

    Oh, and NASA, as always, rock at converting metric to imperial... :P

    1.5 cm = 0.59 in
    4 km = 2.48 miles

  5. Re:Don't hold your breath... by Ford+Prefect · · Score: 3, Funny

    BUT - Beagle was not ESA developed - it was private briutish project ...

    So you could say that its life was nasty, briutish and short?

    (Badum-TISH!)

    I'm sorry.

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    Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
  6. Re:Try and imagine... by bobcave · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yikes - how many bonghits before *that* post??

    --
    There is no such thing as 'chocohol' or 'workahol'.
  7. Re:Pictures. by clarkcox3 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Not only did they convert incorrectly, they measured incorrectly to begin with. A penny is 19.05mm in diameter, not 15mm.

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    There are no tiger attacks in my area and it's all because this rock I'm holding keeps the tigers away.
  8. Re:Great news! by gargleblast · · Score: 5, Funny
    I submitted a story about this at 7 am, but it got rejected.. go figure.

    STANDARDISED SLASHDOT SUBMISSION ANALYSIS FORM

    CONTENT: Does the submission contain:

    Blatant anti-Microsoft bias? No
    Blatant anti-MPAA/RIAA bias? No
    Use of the word 'virii'? No

    Score: 0

    NEWSWORTHINESS: Is the story:

    Topical? Yes
    Timely? Yes

    Score (must be 3 or more): 2

    FINAL CHANCE: Is it a dupe? No

    Status: *REJECTED*

    (plonk!)

  9. Re:Try and imagine... by Ignignot · · Score: 5, Funny

    Try and imagine, a sentence, with lots of commas, some in places they shouldn't be, going on and on, far past the boundaries of normal sentences, standing tall like a great dark god of sentences, like a toilet full melodramatic examples, and then when you think it might end and the commas stop and you yearn for a period, more come like a never ending journey towards a final ending.

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    I submitted this story last night, and it didn't get posted.