NightSky.ie » Saturn

Saturn’s Rings – Up close

paul — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:07:58 +0000

There are a number of sources of fantastic images these days, Hubble, HiRISE and Cassini. Here is another gorgeous natural color view of gradations in the transparency of Saturn’s inner rings taken by the Cassini spacecraft. We can see the myriad of dark shadows of the rings separate Saturn’s southern hemisphere in the bottom of the image from the north. The innermost D ring is invisible, laid over the planet’s northern hemisphere. The translucent C ring runs through the middle of the image. The denser B ring stretches across the top of the image.

“This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 48 degrees below the ringplane. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Feb. 28, 2009 at a distance of approximately 1 million kilometers (620,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 59 kilometers (37 miles) per pixel.”

Shadow and Ringshine March 16, 2010: Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Stunning Saturn

paul — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:14:53 +0000

Saturn is truly more beautiful that we could have ever imagined. Here we see Saturn cast its shadow on the rings in this Cassini image that shows how the rings reflect sunlight onto the dark side of the planet. Saturn appears dimly illuminated by the ringshine.

This view looks toward the southern, unilluminated side of the rings from about 10 degrees below the ringplane.

The image was taken in visible blue light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Jan. 2, 2010. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 102 degrees. Image scale is 131 kilometers (81 miles) per pixel.

Cassini art. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Tethys and Saturnian Rings

paul — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:04:41 +0000

While browsing some images online I came across a site that reworks images from space and produces visually stunning and vibrate results. The integrity of the images remain. Take a look at this one. You can see more on wanderingspace.net

Image of the Week

Saturn Moon Ballet

paul — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:37:37 +0000

Nice video of Saturn and it’s moons in a dance to the sound of the nutcracker. Very festive!….It is a combination of 61 images taken from Cassini.

Titan casts a large shadow…

paul — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:14:03 +0000

Titan (5150 kilometers, 3200 miles across) is Saturn’s largest moon but is not pictured here. What you can see is its elongated shadow below Saturn’s rings in this newly released image from Cassini. This view looks toward the northern, sunlit side of the rings from just above the ringplane. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 2.1 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Saturn with an image scale of 123 kilometers (76 miles) per pixel.

Titan Casts a fuzzy shadow.

Titan’s orbit is almost exactly in the same plane as the rings, and having its shadow so far south of the rings’ shadow is an indication that the Sun is shining down on the planet from just north of the equator. Because the rings are closer to the planet you can just barely see that the shadow they cast is just south of the equator. Titan’s orbit around Saturn is about 1.2 million km from the planet, about 10 times farther out than the main rings.

The images alone have been worth sending this Mission!

For more information about the Cassini Equinox Mission visit http://ciclops.org, http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Stunning selection of raw images from Cassini

paul — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:06:53 +0000

Its one thing to send a craft to Saturn, but another to take one stunning image after the next. Here is a collection of some of my favorite images over the last 4 months. These images are “Raw” in that they have not been processed/cleaned etc. But I’d rather get the images early that have to wait months for perfection. Enjoy the set of images. Here is the link if you want to browse through even more images (http://ciclops.org/)

Janus (and a smaller moon) hiding behind Saturns rings

Enceladus being eclipsed by a crescent Rhea.

Saturn in infrared - The large shadow south of the equator is from the moon Tethys

Enceladus

Enceladus - with plumes from icy surface eruptions.

Titan

Ring around Titan

Shown a double light source!

Sailing on the lakes of Titan

paul — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:47:46 +0000

Imagine sailing on a lake on the moon of Titan in a nuclear powered sailing craft with Saturn rising high in the sky above you. There is wind and rain, but its a chilly -180 Celsius where Ethane and Methane flow instead of liquid water in world which has been described as an eerie version of Earth.

Such is the proposal by a number of researchers seeking funding for a future NASA-ESA joint mission to Saturn and Titan. The idea is to have an orbiter which releases a balloon into Titans atmosphere and drops a probe onto one of the many lakes in the northern hemisphere where it will search for organic compounds in the lakes.

It may seem ambitious, but these are the sort of missions that, if funded, will provide the inspiration for future generations of scientists. The pictures alone should be inspiring.

Artists impression - Credit Nasa

Spitzer’s warm images

paul — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:45:50 +0000

The Spitzer spacecraft was designed to take infrared pictures of the cosmos. From its launch in Aug 2003 until May 2009 it has manged to take some amazing pictures of the universe. To accompish this it use a coolant which kept the Telescope IR instruments at a chilly 30 degree Kelvin so that its own instruments would not interfere with the infrared rays it was detecting. The coolant has now been depleted and it has started taking “warm” pictures. Recently it has detected a ring around Saturn (for which we have an artist impression, no “real pictures”) which dwarfs all other rings. The sheer size of the ring is stunning.

New Saturn Ring

But lets not forget some of the other images it has taken, I thought I’d dig one up, Here is Cygnus, the first images taken while the telescope was being recommissioned.

DR22, Cygnus, NGC 4145, NGC 4361

Saturn – beautiful new Cassini image

paul — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:46:23 +0000

With Saturn having its rings edge on to the Sun, you might think all the cool pictures are going to have to wait. Well take a look at this Cassini image and tell me what you make of it. Take a close look and while you cannot see the moon Enceladus, you can see its shadow beside the shadow of the ring. Stunning…thanks Cassini!