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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)
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.
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)
the planet's rotation seems to be slowing!
Of course it is. We keep using it to boost our spacecraft.
It was BW. They used the spectral information from the DISR device (think of it as a single pixel of full very accurate color) and then used it to interpolate color for a whole image. Anywho, it's bizarre but the highest quality polished images didn't seem to come from the DISR group (bleech) but instead from amateurs, mere hours after descent no less. One should keep in mind this is all through an 1 byte/sec link from the probe....
- "Hear that?! The percolations are imminent! Cease your ingress!"
Wouldn't that be an atmotorus?
Yeah, yeah -1 Pedant...
Don't trust anyone under thirty.
Can you clarify what you mean be "anymore"? Was there ever a time that people knew what the real planets "looked" like? Or even the unreal planets for that matter....most of everything we know is heresay and much of that is colorful heresay, to say the least.
Best of all, if you really want to know what the planets look like, these "false colored" images are the best thing after all because they pick out features that single sources of original data are obscuring or not picking up at all. It shouldn't be forgotten that this is data imaging, not a family picnic slideshow; the instruments being used to generate the data are not limited to the familiar visible-spectrum light camera that we are used to for our snapshots.
Still, I'm anxiously awaiting those holographic images you suggested. Now thats a nice enhancement!
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.
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.
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.
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.