"Кассини" !

Автор sol, 28.01.2004 19:13:59

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tnt22

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/7816/
ЦитироватьAll Aglow



Photojournal: PIA21900

 December 25, 2017

Saturn's moon Enceladus drifts before the rings, which glow brightly in the sunlight. Beneath its icy exterior shell, Enceladus hides a global ocean of liquid water. Just visible at the moon's south pole (at bottom here) is the plume of water ice particles and other material that constantly spews from that ocean via fractures in the ice. The bright speck to the right of Enceladus is a distant star.
Спойлер
This image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 6, 2011, at a distance of approximately 90,000 miles (145,000 kilometers) from Enceladus.

The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and https://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
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tnt22

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/7819/
ЦитироватьTwilight Haze



Photojournal: PIA21902

January 15, 2018
 
In this view, individual layers of haze can be distinguished in the upper atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Titan's atmosphere features a rich and complex chemistry originating from methane and nitrogen and evolving into complex molecules, eventually forming the smog that surrounds the moon.
Спойлер
This natural color image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on March 31, 2005, at a distance of approximately 20,556 miles (33,083 kilometers) from Titan. The view looks toward the north polar region on the moon's night side. Part of Titan's sunlit crescent is visible at right.

The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and https://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

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tnt22

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/3137/cassini-finds-saturn-moon-has-sea-level-like-earth/
ЦитироватьJanuary 17, 2018
Cassini Finds Saturn Moon Has 'Sea Level' Like Earth


Ligeia Mare, shown in here in data obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, is the second largest known body of liquid on Saturn's moon Titan. It is filled with liquid hydrocarbons, such as ethane and methane, and is one of the many seas and lakes that bejewel Titan's north polar region. Cassini has yet to observe waves on Ligeia Mare and will look again during its next encounter on May 23, 2013.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/Cornell

Saturn's moon Titan may be nearly a billion miles away from Earth, but a recently published paper based on data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft reveals a new way this distant world and our own are eerily similar. Just as the surface of oceans on Earth lies at an average elevation that we call "sea level," Titan's seas also lie at an average elevation.
Спойлер
This is the latest finding that shows remarkable similarities between Earth and Titan, the only other world we know of in our solar system that has stable liquid on its surface. The twist at Titan is that its lakes and seas are filled with hydrocarbons rather than liquid water, and water ice overlain by a layer of solid organic material serves as the bedrock surrounding these lakes and seas.

The new paper, led by Alex Hayes at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, finds that Titan's seas follow a constant elevation relative to Titan's gravitational pull -- just like Earth's oceans. Smaller lakes on Titan, it turns out, appear at elevations several hundred feet, or meters, higher than Titan's sea level. Lakes at high elevation are commonly found on Earth. The highest lake navigable by large ships, Lake Titicaca, is over 12,000 feet [3,700 meters] above sea level.

The new study suggests that elevation is important because Titan's liquid bodies appear to be connected under the surface in something akin to an aquifer system at Earth. Hydrocarbons appear to be flowing underneath Titan's surface similar to the way water flows through underground porous rock or gravel on Earth, so that nearby lakes communicate with each other and share a common liquid level.

The paper was based on data obtained by Cassini's radar instrument until just months before the spacecraft burned up in the Saturn atmosphere last year. It also used a new topographical map published in the same issue of Geophysical Research Letters.

For more details on the two papers, visit:

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2018/01/saturns-moon-titan-sports-earth-features

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the U.S. and several European countries.

More information about Cassini:

https://www.nasa.gov/cassini

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

Jia-Rui Cook
 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
 818-354-0724
 jccook@jpl.nasa.gov
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SashaBad

Углеводородный суп Титана хранит рецепт жизни?
 https://phys.org/news/2018-02-titan-hydrocarbon-soup-recipe-life.html

Исследователи НАСА подтвердили существование в атмосфере Титана винилацианида, который является органическим соединением, потенциально способным обеспечить клеточные мембраны для микробной, жизни в огромных метановых океанах Титана. Если это правда, это может доказать нам, что жизнь может процветать без вездесущей H2O.

Клеточные мембраны на Земле состоят из фосфолипидов, молекулярных цепей с фосфористыми кислородными головками и хвостами из углеродов, которые связываются друг с другом с образованием гибкой мембраны в воде. Жизнь на основе метана, если она существует, нуждается в альтернативе Земным фосфолипидам и открывает гораздо более широкий круг планет и их спутников для возможности внеземной жизни. Одной из возможных альтернатив является винилцианид.
Космический аппарат Кассини впервые предположил присутствие винилцианида на Титане, с помощью своего масс-спектрометра. Но понадобился очень чувствительный взгляд Большого миллиметрового / субмиллиметрового массива в Атакаме (ALMA) в Чили, чтобы подтвердить что  винилцианид, действительно там есть.
Морин Палмер, исследователь Центра космических полетов им. Годдарда НАСА в Гринбелте, штат Мэриленд, ведущий автор статьи, собрала архивные данные из АЛМА и увидела винилцианид в атмосфере Титана на высотах более 200 километров, с максимальной концентрацией в районах над южным полюсом Титана.
При температурах на Титане, достигающих -179 градусов по Цельсию (-290 градусов по Фаренгейту), органические молекулы в атмосфере образуют капельки, которые опускаются в озера метана в погодном цикле, подобном циклу воды на Земле. Там они потенциально могут создавать простые, микроскопические формы жизни. Группа Палмера провела исследования в области моделирования, которые показали, что в Лигейе-Маре, северном озере Титана, имеется достаточное количество винилового цианида, чтобы образовать около 10 миллионов клеток на кубический сантиметр, что примерно в 10 раз больше, чем бактерий в прибрежных зонах земных океанов.
Так или иначе мы всё-таки будем там.

tnt22

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/7820/
ЦитироватьContrasting Crescents



Photojournal: PIA21904

February 5, 2018

In this view, Saturn's icy moon Rhea passes in front of Titan as seen by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Some of the differences between the two large moons are readily apparent. While Rhea is a heavily-cratered, airless world, Titan's nitrogen-rich atmosphere is even thicker than Earth's.
Спойлер
This natural color image was taken in visible light with the Cassini narrow-angle camera on Nov. 19, 2009, at a distance of approximately 713,300 mi les (1,148,000 kilometers) from Rhea.

The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and https://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

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tnt22

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/7821/
ЦитироватьA Song of Ice and Light



Photojournal: PIA17144

February 12, 2018

Saturn's moon Enceladus drifts before the rings and the tiny moon Pandora in this view that NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured on Nov. 1, 2009. The entire scene is backlit by the Sun, providing striking illumination for the icy particles that make up both the rings and the jets emanating from the south pole of Enceladus, which is about 314 miles (505 km) across. Pandora, which is about (52 miles, 84 kilometers) wide, was on the opposite side of the rings from Cassini and Enceladus when the image was taken. This view looks toward the night side on Pandora as well, which is lit by dim golden light reflected from Saturn.

This natural-color image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft's narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 149,600 miles (240,800 kilometers) from Enceladus and 352,200 miles (566,800 kilometers) from Pandora.
Спойлер
The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and https://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

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tnt22

https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/02/19/saturns-night-side-caught-in-ringshine/
ЦитироватьSaturn's night side caught in "ringshine"
February 19, 2018 Stephen Clark


A patch of Saturn's atmosphere was captured in this view fr om Cassini's wide-angle camera on Sept. 14, 2017. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

In the final hours of its pioneering mission, NASA's Cassini spacecraft opened its cameras to gaze down on Saturn, recording views of a nighttime cloudscape illuminated by sunlight reflected off countless tiny ice particles in the planet's rings.

A mosaic released last week by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which managed the Cassini mission, shows a patch of Saturn's atmosphere on the planet's night side. NASA said the mosaic was created with some of the final images taken by Cassini on Sept. 14 before the spacecraft plunged into Saturn and was crushed by pressure from its atmosphere, composed primarily of hydrogen.
Спойлер
The sepia tones of Saturn's atmosphere were lit by reflected sunlight from the planet's rings, and the mosaic includes the region wh ere Cassini would dive into the planet hours later. The region rotated into daylight before Cassini made its final plunge.

The images used to create the mosaic were taken at a distance of approximately 394,000 miles (634,000 kilometers) from Saturn.

Cassini orbited Saturn more than 13 years, logging numerous flybys with the planet's largest moon Titan, the ocean-harboring moon Enceladus and many of Saturn's other companions.

NASA officials elected to end the mission last year to ensure Cassini made a guided dive into Saturn while still operational. Scientists did not want to lose control of the aging probe and leave open the possibility of a collision with Titan or Enceladus, moons which might be habitable for microbial life.

Scientists continue analyzing data from Cassini's final months, which returned data on mass of the planet's rings, which could tell researchers about their age and origin. Cassini's instruments also radioed measurements from inside Saturn's upper atmosphere during its final descent Sept. 15.
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tnt22

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA17185
ЦитироватьMARCH 5, 2018
Glare on the Window



In this image, NASA's Cassini sees Saturn and its rings through a haze of Sun glare on the camera lens. If you could travel to Saturn in person and look out the window of your spacecraft when the Sun was at a certain angle, you might see a view very similar to this one.

Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to show the scene in natural color. The images were taken with Cassini's wide-angle camera on June 23, 2013, at a distance of approximately 491,200 miles (790,500 kilometers) from Saturn.
Спойлер
The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
...
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tnt22

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/7825/
ЦитироватьDramatic Dione



Photojournal: PIA17197

March 12, 2018

Cassini captured this striking view of Saturn's moon Dione on July 23, 2012. Dione is about 698 miles (1,123 kilometers) across. Its density suggests that about a third of the moon is made up of a dense core (probably silicate rock) with the remainder of its material being water ice. At Dione's average temperature of -304 degrees Fahrenheit (-186 degrees Celsius), ice is so hard it behaves like rock.

The image was taken with Cassini's narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 260,000 miles (418,000 kilometers) from Dione, through a polarized filter and a spectral filter sensitive to green light.
Спойлер
The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and https://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

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tnt22

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/7826/
ЦитироватьThe Edge of the Night



Photojournal: PIA17197

March 19, 2018

Saturn's shadow sweeps across the rings in a view captured on Nov. 5, 2006 by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. In the bottom half of the image, the countless icy particles that make up the rings bask in full daylight. In the top half, they move through Saturn's shadow. On the right side of the image, the planet's night side, dimly lit by reflected ringshine, can be seen through gaps in the darkened rings.
This view is a mosaic of four visible light images taken with Cassini's narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 932,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Saturn.
Спойлер
The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and https://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

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поц

#2530
ЦитироватьJason Major‏ @JPMajor 22 мар.


Rhea passing in front of #Saturn with rings nearly edge-on and casting shadows onto the planet. Raw Cassini image composite from May 8, 2010.
 

неужели это не фотошоп? обалдеть...

tnt22

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/3143/linda-spilker-cassinis-amazing-discoveries/
ЦитироватьMarch 29, 2018

Linda Spilker: Cassini's Amazing Discoveries


At the 49th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference on March 19, 2018, Cassini Project Scientist Dr. Linda Spilker reviewed the highlights of the mission.

In this recording, Spilker's remarks begin at the 13:50 mark
https://pdvod.new.livestream.com/events/00000000007acd8d/9fd87532-1939-47b6-ac84-89b9591f762f_1500.mp4
(video 50:28 )

Старый

Всё забываю спросить: а куда делись "спицы" в кольцах которые видели Вояджеры?
1. Ангара - единственная в мире новая РН которая хуже старой (с) Старый Ламер
2. Назначение Роскосмоса - не летать в космос а выкачивать из бюджета деньги
3. У Маска ракета длиннее и толще чем у Роскосмоса
4. Чем мрачнее реальность тем ярче бред (с) Старый Ламер

sol

ЦитироватьСтарый пишет:
Всё забываю спросить: а куда делись "спицы" в кольцах которые видели Вояджеры?
туда же, куда делись "каналы" Марса. В Лету....
Массаракш!

Жизнь - это падение в пропасть неизвестной глубины и заполненную туманом.

tnt22

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/7827/
ЦитироватьTaking a Shine to Enceladus



Photojournal: PIA17216

April 2, 2018

Saturn's rings cast shadows on the planet's cloud tops, providing a perfect backdrop for the brilliant sphere of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The tiny world's bright white surface results in part from a snow of material originating from the towering plume of icy particles at Enceladus' south pole.

This image looks toward the leading side of Enceladus (504 kilometers, or 313 miles across). North is up.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft's narrow-angle camera on June 28, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 281,000 kilometers (175,000 miles) from Enceladus. Image scale is about 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel.
Спойлер
The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and https://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

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tnt22

https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/04/06/saturns-clouds-run-deep-rings-may-rain-organics/
ЦитироватьSaturn's clouds run deep, rings may rain organics
April 6, 2018Stephen Clark


Artist's illustration of Saturn's internal structure. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Saturn's clouds have roots deeper inside the planet's atmosphere than scientists previously thought, and Saturn's rings — now believed to have formed in the last 200 million years — appear to be raining organic molecules down on the planet, according to observations made by NASA's Cassini spacecraft last year in the final weeks of its mission.

The discoveries from Cassini's grand finale, when the long-lived plutonium-powered space probe passed through a gap between Saturn and its rings, continue to keep scientists on their toes.
Спойлер
"The weather and what you're seeing on Saturn is not just in the very thin atmosphere that you're seeing, it's deeper," said Linda Spilker, the Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

During Cassini's 22 passages inside Saturn's rings, the spacecraft measured the gas giant's gravity directly, allowing scientists to differentiate effects from the rings and the planet itself. Running low on fuel, Cassini plunged into Saturn's atmosphere Sept. 15, 2017, as intended.

The measurements gave Cassini scientists a better idea of Saturn's internal structure, showing how mass is distributed inside the planet. The data also help scientists improve calculations of the mass of Saturn's rings, a figure that yields an estimate of their age.

Weather systems on Saturn are not as visually spectacular as those on Jupiter, but Spilker said scientists now see evidence that Saturn's clouds and jet streams extend much deeper into the planet than they expected.

"The initial thought was that thickness was maybe only a few hundreds of kilometers, or something like that, and it's turning out to be thousands of kilometers instead," Spilker said last month at the 49th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference near Houston.

NASA's Juno spacecraft, currently exploring the internal structure of Jupiter, has found that planet's jet streams also extend well beneath the cloud tops, perhaps to a depth of 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers).

The Juno team made that announcement in early March.

"Galileo viewed the stripes on Jupiter more than 400 years ago," said Yohai Kaspi, Juno co-investigator from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and lead author of a Nature paper on Jupiter's deep weather layer. "Until now, we only had a superficial understanding of them and have been able to relate these stripes to cloud features along Jupiter's jets. Now, following the Juno gravity measurements, we know how deep the jets extend and what their structure is beneath the visible clouds. It's like going from a 2-D picture to a 3-D version in high definition."

In a stroke of fortune for planetary scientists, Cassini made similar measurements of Saturn's deep interior at the same time as Juno was probing Jupiter.

"At Jupiter, they saw the atmospheric depth of 3,000 kilometers," Spilker said. "That was pretty amazing, and now Saturn is much deeper. It will be interesting to see when they start comparing Jupiter and Saturn."


Artist's illustration of the Cassini spacecraft during one of its final orbits between Saturn and its rings. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Gravity data from Cassini's final 22 orbits also point to a relatively recent formation of Saturn's rings — some time in the last 200 million years, about the time dinosaurs began to flourish on Earth, and a fraction of the roughly 4.5 billion-year age of Saturn itself. The prevailing theory is that a comet, a moon, or some other cosmic interloper ventured too close Saturn. Saturn's gravity ripped the object apart, and the leftover ice and dust formed the planet's famous rings.

Scientists derived Saturn's ring age from the rings' mass.

"Prior to the grand finale orbits, that mass was uncertain by about 100 percent, which is a lot," Spilker said.

There is still some uncertainty in the ring mass estimate after Cassini, but the error bars have narrowed, and the estimate centers on a number slightly less massive than earlier predictions.

Spilker said the results have been submitted for publication in Science magazine.

"This points to very young rings, rings that are probably on the order of 100 million years old or so, because of this very low mass for the rings," Spilker said. "So this was really an astonishing result, a new result that we could get with Cassini."

Jeff Cuzzi, an expert on Saturn's rings at NASA's Ames Research Center, said it is time for scientists to rethink their theories on how the rings formed.

The biggest objects in the solar system had settled into stable orbits around the sun by the time the rings appeared at Saturn, Cuzzi said, making the probability of a large chunk of rock or ice venturing close to the planet 200 million years ago "statistically unlikely."

He said a moon the size of Titan, which is 50 percent larger than Earth's moon, could have drifted too close to Saturn and been ripped apart. But that scenario was also much more likely to happen when the solar system was more chaotic billions of years ago.

"The only young scenario that has any plausibility ... is whereby the Saturn moon system might have ben evolving very stably over almost the whole age of the solar system until a resonance was hit about 100 million years ago," Cuzzi said.

The moons' orbits would have become unstable in such a scenario, Cuzzi said, causing them to collide with one another and shed icy debris.

Scientists still have to resolve some lingering questions in such a scenario, such as how the debris could have migrated to the rings' current positions, Cuzzi said. Research has shown that a recent resonance between moons could have only occurred at Saturn, and that may be why fresh, bright rings are seen there but not around other planets in the solar system.

"All of the giant planets have these little wimpy rings of dark primordial material," Cuzzi said. "Only Saturn has these massive icy rings."

"They're not going to go away, they're just going to keep getting darker," Cuzzi said. "We're just lucky to see them now."

Cassini also made the first direct measurement of material raining down on Saturn from the planet's innermost ring.

Several of Cassini's instruments detected microscopic particles, most of which were smaller than a thousandth of a millimeter in size, as the probe dove between the visible rings and Saturn's cloud tops. Previous studies suggested the rings may deposit material into Saturn's atmosphere.


File photo of a backlit Saturn and its rings taken by the Cassini spacecraft in 2006. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The particles — or "nano-grains" as some scientists call them — were too small to pose a hazard to Cassini as the spacecraft flew through the ring gap at more than 60,000 mph.

The material rains down on Saturn's atmosphere near the planet's equator. Scientists have identified much of the material as water ice — no surprise because water makes up more than 90 percent of the rings.

But initial results show there are heavier particles, including organic molecules like methane, embedded in the material raining down from the D ring. And the ratio of water ice in the "ring rain" is lower than the percentage of water in the rings themselves, suggesting the water has been lost.

That discovery was unexpected.

Researchers are now on the hunt for the source of the carbon-bearing organic molecules. They could be brought in from external sources, such as Saturn's moons or comets, scientists said.

Saturn's rings have a muted reddish hue when analysts exaggerate their color in imagery.

"Are they red because of good, old-fashioned rust like Mars, or are they red because of the same kinds of organic materials ... that make carrots, tomatoes and watermelon red?" Cuzzi said.

"To me, this answers the question of what makes the rings red. It's organics."
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https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/7829/gravitys-rainbow/
ЦитироватьGravity's Rainbow



Photojournal: PIA22418

April 23, 2018

Saturn's rings display their subtle colors in this view captured on Aug. 22, 2009, by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The particles that make up the rings range in size from smaller than a grain of sand to as large as mountains, and are mostly made of water ice. The exact nature of the material responsible for bestowing color on the rings remains a matter of intense debate among scientists.

Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. Cassini's narrow-angle camera took the images at a distance of approximately 1.27 million miles (2.05 million kilometers) from the center of the rings.
Спойлер
The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and https://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

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https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/7830/postcard-from-the-ring-plane/
ЦитироватьPostcard from the Ring Plane



Photojournal: PIA18323

May 7, 2018

On March 13, 2006 Cassini's narrow-angle camera captured this look at Saturn and its rings, seen here nearly edge on. The frame also features Mimas and tiny Janus (above the rings), and Tethys (below the rings). "Above" and "below" the rings is mostly a matter of perspective here. All three moons and the rings orbit Saturn in roughly the same plane.

The night side of Mimas is gently illuminated by "Saturnshine," sunlight reflected from the planet's cloud tops.

Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view, taken at a distance of approximately 1.7 million miles (2.7 million kilometers) from Saturn.
Спойлер
The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and https://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

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https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/7838/a-stage-for-shadows/
ЦитироватьA Stage for Shadows



Photojournal: PIA18320

May 14, 2018

Two kinds of dramatic shadows play across the face of Saturn in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraftfrom Dec. 6, 2007. The planet's rings cast dark bands across the cloud tops in the northern hemisphere. Near the pole, an elongated shadow can be seen from Saturn's moon Tethys, which appears as a bright sphere left of center.

Other icy moons make an appearance as well, including Dione (front right) and Enceladus (back right). A bright storm can be seen in Saturn's southern hemisphere at lower right.

This natural color view is a mosaic of images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of approximately 1 million miles (about 1.7 million kilometers) from Saturn.
Спойлер
The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and https://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

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https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/7839/a-world-all-its-own/
ЦитироватьA World All Its Own


Photojournal: PIA19642

May 21, 2018

On May 6, 2012, Cassini's cameras caught an arresting view of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, drifting before the planet (see PIA14922). Larger than the planet Mercury, Titan measures 3,200 miles (5,150 kilometers) across. In this closeup fr om the same observation, some of the intriguing world's unique features come into clearer view.

The detached haze layer that surrounds Titan is clearly visible against Saturn and its rings in the background, the haze growing more complex in its structure near the poles. The camera looks toward the dune-filled region known as Shangri-La, wh ere the Huygens probe's landing site sits just below and left of center, around the 8 o'clock position. (For more information on Huygens' landing site, see PIA20713).

This view is a mosaic of four images that were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft's narrow-angle camera, at a distance of approximately 478,000 miles (770,000 kilometers) from Titan.
Спойлер
The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and https://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

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