Cassini's Christmas Gift: In the Shadow of Saturn

astroengine writes "As the Cassini mission continues to orbit the ringed gas giant Saturn, it's hard to imagine what magnificent view the NASA spacecraft will show us next. Today, however, is one for the history books. As a very special Christmas holiday treat, the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPS) team have processed a magnificent view of Saturn that is rarely seen — a portrait from the dark side of the planet."

Comments

Anybody have another link?

[mcgrew]

The first is firewalled off (they think discovery is an entertainment site) and the second is slashdotted. So here you fellows go, straight from NASA. I doubt we'll slashdot them... and submitter, why did you not link the source?

Re:Anybody have another link?

[wooferhound]

The Ciclops site linked in the summery is the official Cassini site for processed pictures and raw images taken by Cassini. NASA gets the pics after they are released on Ciclops.

Re:Anybody have another link?

[MightyMartian]

There's no dark side of Saturn. As a matter of fact it's all dark really.

Re:So, Cassini is like my sister

[wooferhound]

I like this picture from 2006 much better . . .
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap061016.html

Re:Photoshop

[mark-t]

Nope. Looks nothing like it.

Re:So, Cassini is like my sister

[nschubach]

In case anyone is interested:

The mosaic being released today by the mission and the imaging team, in celebration of the 2012 holiday season, does not contain Earth; along with the sun, our planet is hidden behind Saturn. However, it was taken when Cassini was closer to Saturn and therefore shows more detail in the rings than the one taken in 2006.

(Source)

OK let's be practical..

[eexaa]

...can anyone fix the ugly square crop of that blue haze below the saturn?

i'd be a totally cool&costly wallpaper then :)

Give Credit to US agencies..

[Anonymous Coward]

..to come up with the Acronyms for every occasion

Re:Give Credit to US agencies..

[Scarletdown]

The swedish for example use their gods: Odin,frejia Thor (proposed and unfortunatelly rejected I think)

Why do I get the feeling Thor was rejected due to the fear of Marvel/Disney bringing down a horde of evil lawyers on them?

I don't understand this picture

[Hazelfield]

There's something about that picture that's hard for my brain to process. I get the backlit rings to the sides of the planet and the shadow the planet casts on its rings on the dark side, but where do the rings on the upper half of the planet come from and why do they seem offset from the other rings?

Re:I don't understand this picture

[chichilalescu]

The camera is behind and "below" Saturn, and Saturn's rings are "tilted" towards the Sun (you can see this because the planet's shadow on the rings is curved; if the ring was parallel to the light rays, the shadow would have straight edges).
The planet's back is lit by the rings: the upper part gets light reflected by the rings, and some diffused light, while the lower part only gets diffused light, that's why the upper part is better illuminated.
The "black rings" that you can see over the upper part of the planet are just the back of the rings (i.e the part that's in Saturn's shadow). Because the planet is much better illuminated than this portion of the rings, you see them as black on colored background (they must receive some light from the back of the planet, but that's probably below the sensitivity threshold of the camera).
They are "offset" because you only notice the portion between the camera and the planet; the rest of the shadowy part of the rings is dark on a dark background, so you can't see it.

Re:I don't understand this picture

[sighted]

Where do the rings on the upper half of the planet come from and why do they seem offset from the other rings?

Let's see if I can clearly put this into words: Those are the rings passing in front of the dark side of the planet. They're translucent. The light reflected from the sun-illuminated part of the rings to either is reflecting off the cloud-tops on the night side of the planet, through the rings, to the camera.

Re:I don't understand this picture

[sighted]

Sigh. I meant to say: to either *side*

Re:I don't understand this picture

[Technician]

The offset black rings is the planet background that is blocked from view by rings in darkness of the planet shadow. The black band matches up with the dense part of the rings in sunlight. You can see part of the planet in thinner parts of the rings. Other parts block your view completely.

The photo appears to have been processed to darken the sunlit rings and greatly boost the dark side of the planet to make it visible by the reflected light off the rings.

Re:I don't understand this picture

[VortexCortex]

They are "offset" because you only notice the portion between the camera and the planet; the rest of the shadowy part of the rings is dark on a dark background, so you can't see it.

No, they are not "offset". They are simply inverse. Look again. Measure if you like with the elliptical path tool in your image editor of choice. The light parts in the lighted rings correspond to the dark parts in the darker rings -- More matter in light = lighter, more matter blocking light = darker; The rings against the planet block its light. The rest of what you said is spot on though.

Re:I don't understand this picture

[FatLittleMonkey]

Right click, rotate image, rotate 180 degrees.

Puts the rings in the orientation your brain expects, then the shadow makes more sense.

Re:I don't understand this picture

[Hazelfield]

Thanks everyone who helped, but especially this tip. For some reason (evolutionary biology?) it seems easier to understand an image where the sunlight comes from above. Now I got a better idea of what's going on. An amazing picture.

Dark Side = Far Side

[tverbeek]

OK, in this story, "the dark side of Saturn" and "the far side of Saturn" are effectively equivalent.

Re:Dark Side = Far Side

[VortexCortex]

"the dark side of Saturn" and "the far side of Saturn" are effectively equivalent.

if ( Dark Side == Far Side ) Mind = Blown;
For a moment there I thought I'd have to add one more viewing of Star Wars to the millions of billions of times I've seen it because I missed all the Gary Larson references.

Resembles Uranus

[Tablizer]

No I really mean it this time, no joke, it does resemble Uranus from that side: green and smooth.

Re:Photoshop

[wonkey_monkey]

Yeah, you can tell by the pixels, right?

Looks nice but

[Whiteox]

it's pretty awful.