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Cassini's Iapetus Flyby

Posted by samzenpus on from the to-the-moon dept.

cupofjoe writes "The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is reporting on the Cassini spacecraft's recent close flyby of the Saturnian moon Iapetus, highlighting images taken from distances 100 times closer than the Voyager 2 flyby in 1981. Near real-time images were shown to Cassini mission team members in a presentation at JPL yesterday, during which a pre-recorded message from Arthur C. Clarke was played to the audience. Clarke wished them luck on the flyby, reminding all present that he had included a pretty accurate description of Iapetus in the original 1968 text of "2001: A Space Odyssey", years before Voyager made its flyby."

26 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. I'm not BadPunGuy by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    But I'd love to hear the impetus to check out Iapetus after taking that turn at Saturn. The tan tie of Titan and...

    Oh fuck off. I haven't slept in days.

  2. Odd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    The spacecraft went into safe mode for the first time in four years directly after the Iapetus survey. NASA blames in on a cosmic ray. I think aliens have just captured the spacecraft and deleted/faked the important data.

    1. Re:Odd by Cassius+Corodes · · Score: 2, Funny

      Maybe it wasn't shut down properly last time?

      --
      Control is an illusion, order our comforting lie. From chaos, through chaos, into chaos we fly
    2. Re:Odd by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Funny
      The good news: the probe took pictures from 100 times closer than Voyager.

      The bad news: all the pictures came back at 640x480 resolution with 4-bit color depth, and had the words "Safe Mode" superimposed over each of the four corners.

  3. Good ol' ACC... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Clarke wished them luck on the flyby, reminding all present that he had included a pretty accurate description of Iapetus in the original 1968 text of "2001: A Space Odyssey", years before Voyager made its flyby.
    Just in case they forgot it wasn't all about them...
    1. Re:Good ol' ACC... by Hal_Porter · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Especially as he didn't predict anything too extraordinary about Iapetus.

      If he's right about life on Europa though, that would be much more impressive. Which is why it was strange he's not lobbying for a Europa mission. It's not as if life on Europa is impossible, in fact it seems quite plausible.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    2. Re:Good ol' ACC... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Probably because we should attempt no landings there.

  4. Pretty accurate description of Iapetus? by nacturation · · Score: 5, Insightful
    That's not how I read it. FTA:

    This is a particularly exciting moment for fans of 2001: A Space Odyssey - because that's where the lone astronaut Dave Bowman discovers the Saturn monolith, which turns out to be a gateway to the stars. Chapter 35 in the novel is titled 'The Eye of Iapetus', and it contains this passage:

            "Iapetus was approaching so slowly that it scarcely seemed to move, and it was impossible to tell the exact moment when it made the subtle change from an astronomical body to a landscape, only fifty miles below. The faithful verniers gave their last spurts of thrust, then closed down forever. The ship was in its final orbit, completing a revolution every three hours at a mere eight hundred miles an hour - all the speed that was required in this feeble gravitation field."

    After more than 40 years, I cannot remember why I placed the Saturn monolith on Iapetus. The submitter makes it sound like a boast but in reality it's simply saying that enthusiasts will appreciate the reference.
    --
    Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
  5. amazing photos by cathector · · Score: 2, Interesting

    i'm at a loss to explain those inky black patches.
    wonderful photos.

    1. Re:amazing photos by sighted · · Score: 4, Informative

      One side of Iapetus is dark, the other as bright as snow. As Iapetus moves in its orbit around Saturn, the dark side faces forward, and many scientists think that the moon swept up the dark material, which might originally have come from another moon. There are some more great shots on another Planetary Society blog entry, and of course on the Cassini raw images feed from NASA.

      --
      Saddle up: Riding with Robots
    2. Re:amazing photos by gigantu' · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What looks dark can be bright at a different wavelength. It depends on what sensors you are using.
      Another fascinating black "thing" on Mars: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_003647_1745 . But in this case is just a hole in the ground.

  6. safe mode? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Cassini shutdown into safe mode... hmm didn't know it ran windows.

    1. Re:safe mode? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      yeah, though if it ran Linux, it would freeze trying to get into safe mode, and then tell you on the screen that you don't have a graphics card.

  7. Ridge. by richie2000 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here you can see part of the ridge that goes around Iapetus: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/raw-images-details.cfm?feiImageID=126186 and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/raw-images-details.cfm?feiImageID=126346

    --
    Money for nothing, pix for free
  8. Inky Stains by Trouvist · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you look closely at what they describe as "Inky Stains" on Iapetus, they look more like burst bubbles. If you consider a consistent direction for the sun's light, and look at the pictures that overlap with different shades of shadow, it looks like the surface of the satellite was covered by air pockets and they happened to either cave in or break. The edges seem slightly too jagged and defined for them to be "stains." Compare "Inky stains on a frozen moon" to "Iapetus Flyby Raw Preview #13" and you can see what I'm talking about. I don't think those are discolorations, they look like caverns.

    1. Re:Inky Stains by naam00 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Can't find that second image you mention, but you do realize the light direction is from below in the first one, don't you? Those are just craters, not bubbles. The 'stains' could still be holes or caves I guess, but bubbles?

    2. Re:Inky Stains by Durrok · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Those craters could be miles deep or just a few feet. The astronauts on the moon had the same misconception, grabbing rope to lower themselves down into craters thinking it was a sharp incline when in fact it was just a gentle slope. Shadows can be very deceptive.

      --
      I keep telling myself I'm not the desperate type.
    3. Re:Inky Stains by OldBus · · Score: 4, Interesting
      When I first saw the image I thought they were bubbles too. After reading your post I flipped the image 180 degrees and they were revealed as craters. Just goes to show how much our brains are wired to see light coming from the top...

      Anyway, I suspect the dark stains are probably not caves as when you enlarge the image you can see wisps of the white material on the dark stuff. It would be interesting to know if it was the dark material that caused the craters or whether whatever caused the craters revealed the dark material under the white surface.

    4. Re:Inky Stains by DrVomact · · Score: 2, Informative

      ...you do realize the light direction is from below in the first one, don't you? Those are just craters, not bubbles. The 'stains' could still be holes or caves I guess, but bubbles?

      You're absolutely right about the craters--it took me a few minutes to adjust my brain to see this picture correctly. At first, I thought the "inky stains" were on top of high spots in the terrain, but when I analyzed the way the light was falling on this scene, I realized I was falling victim to the familiar illusion where depressions in the ground (e.g. craters) can look as though they are raised.

      From the position of the "stains" in the craters, are we perhaps simply looking at bare rock where sunlight cooked off the the white stuff? The stains do seem to be located in those portions of the craters that are receiving the greatest illumination. (By the way, is this water ice we're looking at, or frozen methane, or what?)

      --
      Great men are almost always bad men--Lord Acton's Corollary
  9. Neat stuff... by The+Master+Control+P · · Score: 4, Informative

    Go to the "raw images" pages and look at pages 10-11, they've got some awesome "death star" pics. And images 305-320 have some "inky stains" that might make good desktops...

  10. Re:I thought 2001 was a great failure! by Cragen · · Score: 2, Informative

    aarrggh, laddie. That may be why there are not so many UKs around(pronounced ooks, as opposed to Brits). One lassie escaped from Alien, 2 lassies from Aliens, &, umm... anyone from Alien3? (Loved them all! And I lived in S. Harrow (NW London) for 3 great years in the 80's!) Just saw the trailer for AVP-R last weekend. (avp-r.com) Eee-wwww. Looks good.

  11. Other way around.... by mdm-adph · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Dark patches over a white surface? If you ask me, it looks like the other way around -- take a look:

    http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS33/N00092126.jpg

    Doesn't it look like the white is covering the black and slowly un-covering it due to craters forming?

    --
    It is by my will alone my thoughts acquire motion; it is by the juice of the coffee bean that the thoughts acquire speed
  12. Even if it's a boast by tkrotchko · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Even if it was a boast, Arthur C Clarke is allowed that little bit of ego. Besides being an engaging write, he was truly a SCIENCE fiction writer. I don't need to tell you all he's predicted, accomplished, and contributed to popular culture; you can do that yourself (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Clark).

    Truly an icon, and I glad he was around to see some sort of space exploration take place, even if we didn't accomplish everything he predicted.

    --
    You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
    1. Re:Even if it's a boast by pclminion · · Score: 3, Informative

      He's not just a fiction writer. I guess it's easy to forget that the man invented the communications satellite.

  13. Odd... by argStyopa · · Score: 2, Funny

    Doesn't anyone find it funny that Cassini was *allegedly* hit by a cosmic ray event that tripped it into safe mode JUST as it was sliding around Iapetus?

    The last time this happened was 4 years ago.

    Coincidence? Ask Beagle! /tinfoil hat

    --
    -Styopa
  14. Ridge Flyover GIF(shameless selflink) by brownpau · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I tried making an animated GIF of the equatorial ridge flyover photos just to get a sense of Cassini's motion as it flew by Iapetus. A bit jumpy, but wow.