Aimless In Space
--J.B.S. Haldane--
Rachael - Detroit - WSU
Mad Scientist-in-Training
Clastrophysicist (Classics/Astronomy/Physics)
This is my super spectacular (mostly) space blog!! I also enjoy math, Doctor Who, Supernatural, Cowboy Bebop, Fullmetal Alchemist, jellyfish, Detroit, Futurama, and cats.
-
making an OKcupid account
AGREED!
-
The continuing saga of the coffee shop panorama!
-
Last night I went to Big Horn Canyon
It’s right near the Montana/Wyoming border. I’ve never been there before, but wow, was it beautiful. I watched...
-
-
I officially have a 2.1 degree in Classics :)
Saturn is Like an Antiques Shop, Cassini Suggests
A new analysis of data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft suggests that Saturn’s moons and rings are gently worn vintage goods from around the time of our solar system’s birth.
Though they are tinted on the surface from recent “pollution,” these bodies date back more than 4 billion years. They are from around the time that the planetary bodies in our neighborhood began to form out of the protoplanetary nebula, the cloud of material still orbiting the sun after its ignition as a star. The paper, led by Gianrico Filacchione, a Cassini participating scientist at Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics, Rome, has just been published online by the Astrophysical Journal.
“Studying the Saturnian system helps us understand the chemical and physical evolution of our entire solar system,” said Filacchione. “We know now that understanding this evolution requires not just studying a single moon or ring, but piecing together the relationships intertwining these bodies.”Though they are tinted on the surface from recent “pollution,” these bodies date back more than 4 billion years. They are from around the time that the planetary bodies in our neighborhood began to form out of the protoplanetary nebula, the cloud of material still orbiting the sun after its ignition as a star. The paper, led by Gianrico Filacchione, a Cassini participating scientist at Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics, Rome, has just been published online by the Astrophysical Journal.
Light from Many Paths
The unlit side of the rings glows with scattered sunlight as two moons circle giant Saturn. The light reaching Cassini in this view has traveled many paths before being captured.
At left, Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) presents its dark side. Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across), on the far side of the rings, is lit by “Saturnshine,” or reflected sunlight coming from the planet. Saturn, in turn, is faintly lit in the south by light reflecting off the rings.
Saturn’s shadow darkens the rings, tapering off toward the left side of this view.
Peering Deep into Jupiter’s Atmosphere
The dark hot spot in this false-color image from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is a window deep into Jupiter’s atmosphere. All around it are layers of higher clouds, with colors indicating which layer of the atmosphere the clouds are in. The bluish clouds to the right are in the upper troposphere, or perhaps higher still, in the stratosphere. The reddish gyre under the hot spot to the right and the large reddish plume at its lower left are in the lower troposphere. In addition, a high, gauzy haze covers part of the frame. An annotated version of this image highlights the hot spot in the middle with an arrow and boxes around the plume and the gyre.
This image was taken on Dec. 13, 2000, by Cassini’s imaging science subsystem.
Mimas Peeks Over Saturn
Saturn and its north polar hexagon dwarf Mimas as the moon peeks over the planet’s limb. Saturn’s A ring also makes an appearance on the far right. Mimas is 246 miles (396 kilometers) across.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 21 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 28, 2012 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 752 nanometers.
Sunlight scatters through Saturn’s rings, emerging on the unilluminated side. Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across, lower right) and Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across, upper left) are visible here, respectively internal and external to the narrow F ring.
This view looks toward the rings from about 17 degrees above the ringplane. The planet’s shadow darkens the rings near upper left.
Petite Pair Beyond Rings
Two of Saturn’s small moons can be seen orbiting beyond the planet’s thin F ring in this Cassini spacecraft image.
Pandora (81 kilometers, or 50 miles across) is on the left, and Epimetheus (113 kilometers, or 70 miles across) is on the right. This view looks toward the northern, sunlit side of the rings from just above the ringplane. Both moons are closer to Cassini than are the rings. Pandora is slightly closer to Cassini than Epimetheus here.
Saturn’s North Polar Vortex
Seen by Cassini
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawimagedetails/index.cfm?imageID=273987
Saturn casts a wide shadow across its rings in this Cassini spacecraft view which looks toward the darkened southern hemisphere of the night side of the planet.
Cassini’s Raw Saturn
This Image was taken on August 20, 2012 By the Cassini Spacecraft, and received on Earth August 21, 2012. The camera was pointing toward SATURN at approximately 1,472,632 miles (2,369,971 kilometers) away, and the image was taken using the MT3 and IRP90 filters. This image has not been validated or calibrated. A validated/calibrated image will be archived with the NASA Planetary Data System in 2013.
Rivers on Titan |
New findings suggest the surface of Saturn’s largest moon may have undergone a recent transformation. For many years, Titan’s thick, methane- and nitrogen-rich atmosphere kept astronomers from seeing what lies beneath. Saturn’s largest moon appeared through telescopes as a hazy orange orb, in contrast to other heavily cratered moons in the solar system.
In 2004, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft — a probe that flies by Titan as it orbits Saturn — penetrated Titan’s haze, providing scientists with their first detailed images of the surface. Radar images revealed an icy terrain carved out over millions of years by rivers of liquid methane, similar to how rivers of water have etched into Earth’s rocky continents.
While images of Titan have revealed its present landscape, very little is known about its geologic past. Now researchers at MIT and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville have analyzed images of Titan’s river networks and determined that in some regions, rivers have created surprisingly little erosion. The researchers say there are two possible explanations: either erosion on Titan is extremely slow, or some other recent phenomena may have wiped out older riverbeds and landforms.
“It’s a surface that should have eroded much more than what we’re seeing, if the river networks have been active for a long time,” says Taylor Perron, the Cecil and Ida Green Assistant Professor of Geology at MIT. “It raises some very interesting questions about what has been happening on Titan in the last billion years.”
A paper detailing the group’s findings will appear in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Planets. continue reading
Daytime Lightning on Saturn Spotted by Cassini Spacecraft
A NASA spacecraft orbiting Saturn has captured an amazing view of lightning in broad daylight on the ringed planet.
The Cassini orbiter captured the daytime lightning on Saturn as bright blue spots inside a giant storm that raged on the planet last year. NASA unveiled the new Saturn lightning photos Wednesday (July 18), adding that the images came as a big surprise.
“We didn’t think we’d see lighting on Saturn’s day side —only its night side,” said Ulyana Dyudina, a Cassini imaging team associate at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, in a statement. “The fact that Cassini was able to detect the lightning means that it was very intense.”
