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Cassini's Got Pictures And Data
MythMoth writes "To celebrate the anniversary of the Cassini-Huygens probe's orbital insertion, NASA's JPL has a set of fifteen amazing photos from the past year. Meanwhile, the BBC reports that some of the latest science data from the mission reveals that Saturn's ring system has its own (thin) O2 atmosphere, and that the planet's rotation seems to be slowing!"
Hell, this is /., we'll celebrate anyone's insertion. Call me for the explosion.
Vote for the Death Star (you can figure out which one I mean)
The one picture that is supposed to show Titan's true color appears to be very similar to pictures of Mars having a bad air day. Is that picture really from Titan or did someone throw in a Mars photo?
:P
Inquiring minds want to know.
Cool about Cassini. NASA's Greatest Hits of the last few decades seem to be Lagrange Point planetary orbiters and the Hubble Space Telescope. I was going to credit the snake-bitten Shuttle missions for rescuing Hubble, but heck we're going to junk that.
``Tension, apprehension & dissension have begun!'' - Duffy Wyg&, in Alfred Bester's _The Demolished Man_
I hope one day we get high-definition video from these missions.
Imagine something like the the descent panorama but in the IMAX and later on your big fat TV.
This Like That - fun with words!
One of the most intriguing of all the photos is likely the one of the moon Iapetus. While the other photos beautifully capture images of Titan and Saturn itself, the real object of intrigue is the geological formation on Iapetus. Near its equator theres a huge topographic ridge, which gives the moon a really unusual appearance.
Was anyone else struck by how Titan seems very similar to Mars on its surface shot? Lots of small rocks and boulders laying around its surface and a general haze present etc etc.
Seems by now we could have something a little more advanced -- holograms maybe, or at least all images as stereographs. If these robot missions are to take the place of manned exploration as some have indicated, then wouldn't it make sense to do the best you can so that people would feel they were actually there? Even the use of false color bothers me -- do people even know what the real planets look like anymore? Sky and Telescope magazine ran an article last month about how newcomers to astronomy are sometimes dissapointed when they see the real thing! It's because most of the pictures in the mass media have been "enhanced".
Certifications: Worth It Or Waste Of Time?
This looks like a mission very well done thus far and is the sort of thing we should do at every opportunity.
For the future, I'd like to see us mass-producing multi-use probes and sending small convoys of them out across the system. I'd also like to see more space telescopes sent out and about to capture data to send home. Imagine sending something about half the size of Hubble to orbit between Mars and Jupiter.
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
Inevitably, whenever there's a vote some fucker'll complain about their own personal choice not being there. My choice - not cowboyneal - is for the shot of Mimas against the rings.
Still, well done to all concerned for giving us a years worth of desktop pictures. Oh, and some science.
Um... and how exactly would you propose we do that with the instrumentation on the spacecraft? It's not like you're the first person that has thought of life on Saturn. Go ahead and advocate another 1B mission to the planet equipped with the instrumentation to conduct such experiments and the "so-called" scientists will be knocking a path to your door.
"Truth is much too complicated to allow anything but approximations"
the planet's rotation seems to be slowing!
Of course it is. We keep using it to boost our spacecraft.
Texas-sized comet, accidentally knocked off-kilter by NASA probe, hits....
T E X A S
!!!!!
Yeah, baby, yeaaaah!
668: Neighbour of the Beast
Wouldn't that be an atmotorus?
Yeah, yeah -1 Pedant...
Don't trust anyone under thirty.
Surfs up!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
There were several ways you could have asked that question without being utterly disrepectful, and without sounding like you're lashing out at the world.
The people you're talking about are hardworking and dedicated people at the forefront of exploration. If the sequence of their efforts at exploration isn't logical to you, consider the possibility that you lack key information fueling your basic assumptions, and frame your question with that in mind.
Otherwise, it's more difficult for the people who know the answers to cull the question from the troll.
Mimas, of course.
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
The Titan landscape has proven to be so fantastic I hope NASA considers sending a long lived rover back soon. I think the recent Titan volcano VIMS image belongs on this list.
an ill wind that blows no good
They did say that they might not be measuring it right. Still, between the swirly fluid mass of the planet, the moon system, magnetic field and whatnot, if they're correct, it would be interesting to see where Saturn's hiding all the angular momentum.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Anyone else read _Integral Trees_?
Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
-kfg
Agreed, I still find it amazing that we can send these probes out into space, take some photographs, send the images back to planet earth and see the beauty of our solar system whilst sitting in a comfy chair.
I also find it amazing that no matter where we travel nowadays we always find the need to take photographs and there is always one picture with a fingerprint blocking the view.
Of the pictures they have to choose from, I have to go for the pic of Iapetus. It's by far the most shocking of the pictures -- the girdling ridge around Iapetus' equator is just too weird to believe.
But, my favorite Cassini picture is this one, of the rings edge on. Here you can see a perfectly straight line, almost a quarter of a million miles long. Where else in the universe can you see such a thing?
Thad Beier
I love Mondays. On a Monday, anything is possible.
Well, most of these so-called 'scientists' are aware that Mars has a surface and Saturn does not. Most of the ways we imagine life starting involves goopy watery pools. Saturn is a gas giant. Pools don't form on planets without surfaces.
Can you at least check Wikipedia before you started breaking out the pejorative references to people whose work you plainly do not understand?
Just an amateur astronomer, but :)
My first thought there (+grain_salt) is that Saturn must have suffered a grazing collision with a large body - probably the same one that created the rings - and the dispersion of the rings mass, like the recession of Earth's moon, is having the same effect on Saturn that it does here, slowing rotation. Unlike Earth's moon this would have to be an unstable system.
Only that seems like a *huge* number, given how fast Saturns' rotation is, and how massive it is *. So the impact must be recent - and it's pretty widely accepted, I gather, that Saturn's rings are very young.
If that figure for the rotational change is right - is it just the surface winds or something deeper? - then whatever created the rings was *very very* recent?
* Too tired to do the math, but wouldn't Saturn's low density contribute?
Cheers,
SB
It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
I've not seen the pix of Iapetus yet, server is a bit slow from here, but the Cassini picture of the edge-on rings is absolutely incredible.
:)
:)
How.... "herded"
One would think that random impacts and gravitational interactions among the particles in the ring would make them much "fuzzier". Yet the ring is remarkably compact. It's not even on Saturn's equator, it's tilted.
Makes my head hurt
Cheers,
SB
It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
Yes, I like them... Nice T and A shots of Saturn. :-P
EvilCON - Made Famous by
Beautiful pic, never saw this one before, You can even see some of the larger asteroids in the rings.
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I personally like this one.
Kinda has the whole Death Star look to it...
I'm a virgo and on Slashdot. Coincidence? Yes.
I wonder where the ring line points to, when viewed from the side? I.e. which stars lie along the line (if the line were to be continued as it is)?
Entertain me, astronomy people :)
I do not moderate.
While he could have phrased it better, I assume he was referring to Titan, rather than Saturn. Titan is indeed thought to have "watery pools" (ok, methane, but it's probably liquid at least).
I had a rather wistful hope that the Huygens probe would either get stuck in a tree on the way down, or eaten by something... ah well, wishful thinking dashed, but I do think the pictures (and more importantly the science) are just stunning.
--- These are not words: wierd, genious, rediculous
'Crucual' should, of course, be 'Crucial'.
Just look at this picture and then compare it with this one
This really needs more investigation.
here they are together.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
and that the planet's rotation seems to be slowing!"
For whatever reason (sleep deprivation??) I read that and heard Spock in my head saying "the Defiant is slowing"
God, I need to get out more.
Androk