"Кассини" !

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Cassini Returns Images of Battered Saturn Moon

March 11, 2013

Following its last close flyby of Saturn's moon Rhea, NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured these raw, unprocessed images of the battered icy moon. They show an ancient, cratered surface bearing the scars of collisions with many space rocks. Scientists are still trying to understand some of the curious features they see in these Rhea images, including a curving, narrow fracture, or graben, which is a block of ground lower than its surroundings and bordered by cliffs on either side. This feature looks remarkably recent, cutting most of the craters it crosses, with only a few small craters superimposed.

Cassini flew by Rhea at an altitude of 620 miles (997 kilometers) on March 9, 2013. This flyby was designed primarily for the radio science sub-system to measure Rhea's gravity field. During closest approach and while the radio science sub-system was measuring the icy satellite's gravity field, the imaging team rode along and captured 12 images of Rhea's rough and icy surface. Outbound from Rhea, Cassini's cameras captured a set of global images from a distance of about 167,000 miles (269,000 kilometers).

Data from Cassini's cosmic dust analyzer were also collected to try to detect any dusty debris flying off the surface from tiny meteoroid bombardments. These data will help scientists understand the rate at which "foreign" objects are raining into the Saturn system.

This was the mission's fourth close encounter with Rhea. The spacecraft will pass the moon, but at a much greater distance, in a few years.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-089

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http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/

[pkl]

В атмосфере Титана замечен неизвестный газ



Флуоресцентное свечение, зарегистрированное в верхних слоях атмосферы Титана, самого большого спутника Сатурна, означает наличие газа. Какого именно — это астрономам только предстоит выяснить.

 Данные, собранные космическим кораблём «Кассини» во время облётов Титана, говорят о том, что особенно сильное излучение газа приходится на инфракрасную часть спектра с длиной волны около 3,28 мкм. Совсем рядом расположена область излучения метана — самого распространённого в атмосфере Титана газа, чем и объясняется тот факт, что неизвестный газ до сих пор был скрыт от глаз исследователей.

 Свечение появляется только на дневной стороне спутника, на высоте от 600 до 1 250 км, при этом наибольшая интенсивность сияния отмечается на высоте около 950 км. Ночью вещество не светится в связи с тем, что флуоресценция производится только при попадании солнечного света на молекулы газа.

 Детальный анализ показал, что это не ошибка датчиков «Кассини» и что свечение не связано с метаном и прочими углеводородами, о которых уже известно, что они входят в состав атмосферы Титана. Неизвестное пока соединение, вероятно, принадлежит к группе полициклических ароматических углеводородов или гетероциклических ароматических соединений, ибо излучение в указанном диапазоне характерно для веществ с кольцевым расположением атомов.

 Результаты исследования будут опубликованы в журнале Geophysical Research Letters.

http://science.compulenta.ru/740597/

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http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20130314.html

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The Rose
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia14944.html

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NASA Probe Gets Close Views of Large Saturn Hurricane
04.29.13

   
 Narrated video about a hurricane-like storm seen at Saturn's north pole by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
 › Download video       › Related video

 
 
The spinning vortex of Saturn's north polar storm resembles a deep red rose of giant proportions surrounded by green foliage in this false-color image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI
 › Full image and caption

 
The north pole of Saturn, in the fresh light of spring, is revealed in this color image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI
 › Full image and caption

 
This spectacular, vertigo inducing, false-color image from NASA's Cassini mission highlights the storms at Saturn's north pole. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI
 › Full image and caption

   PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided scientists the first close-up, visible-light views of a behemoth hurricane swirling around Saturn's north pole.
 In high-resolution pictures and video, scientists see the hurricane's eye is about 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) wide, 20 times larger than the average hurricane eye on Earth. Thin, bright clouds at the outer edge of the hurricane are traveling 330 mph(150 meters per second). The hurricane swirls inside a large, mysterious, six-sided weather pattern known as the hexagon.
 "We did a double take when we saw this vortex because it looks so much like a hurricane on Earth," said Andrew Ingersoll, a Cassini imaging team member at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "But there it is at Saturn, on a much larger scale, and it is somehow getting by on the small amounts of water vapor in Saturn's hydrogen atmosphere."
 Scientists will be studying the hurricane to gain insight into hurricanes on Earth, which feed off warm ocean water. Although there is no body of water close to these clouds high in Saturn's atmosphere, learning how these Saturnian storms use water vapor could tell scientists more about how terrestrial hurricanes are generated and sustained.
 Both a terrestrial hurricane and Saturn's north polar vortex have a central eye with no clouds or very low clouds. Other similar features include high clouds forming an eye wall, other high clouds spiraling around the eye, and a counter-clockwise spin in the northern hemisphere.
 A major difference between the hurricanes is that the one on Saturn is much bigger than its counterparts on Earth and spins surprisingly fast. At Saturn, the wind in the eye wall blows more than four times faster than hurricane-force winds on Earth. Unlike terrestrial hurricanes, which tend to move, the Saturnian hurricane is locked onto the planet's north pole. On Earth, hurricanes tend to drift northward because of the forces acting on the fast swirls of wind as the planet rotates. The one on Saturn does not drift and is already as far north as it can be.
 "The polar hurricane has nowhere else to go, and that's likely why it's stuck at the pole," said Kunio Sayanagi, a Cassini imaging team associate at Hampton University in Hampton, Va.
 Scientists believe the massive storm has been churning for years. When Cassini arrived in the Saturn system in 2004, Saturn's north pole was dark because the planet was in the middle of its north polar winter. During that time, the Cassini spacecraft's composite infrared spectrometer and visual and infrared mapping spectrometer detected a great vortex, but a visible-light view had to wait for the passing of the equinox in August 2009. Only then did sunlight begin flooding Saturn's northern hemisphere. The view required a change in the angle of Cassini's orbits around Saturn so the spacecraft could see the poles.
 "Such a stunning and mesmerizing view of the hurricane-like storm at the north pole is only possible because Cassini is on a sportier course, with orbits tilted to loop the spacecraft above and below Saturn's equatorial plane," said Scott Edgington, Cassini deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "You cannot see the polar regions very well from an equatorial orbit. Observing the planet from different vantage points reveals more about the cloud layers that cover the entirety of the planet."
 Cassini changes its orbital inclination for such an observing campaign only once every few years. Because the spacecraft uses flybys of Saturn's moon Titan to change the angle of its orbit, the inclined trajectories require attentive oversight from navigators. The path requires careful planning years in advance and sticking very precisely to the planned itinerary to ensure enough propellant is available for the spacecraft to reach future planned orbits and encounters.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20130429.html

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Beautiful Plumage

Like a proud peacock displaying its tail, Enceladus shows off its beautiful plume to the Cassini spacecraft's cameras.

 Enceladus (313 miles, or 504 kilometers across) is seen here illuminated by light reflected off Saturn.

 This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Enceladus. North on Enceladus is up and rotated 45 degrees to the right. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 18, 2013.

 The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 483,000 miles (777,000 kilometers) from Enceladus and at a Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 173 degrees. Image scale is 3 miles (5 kilometers) per pixel.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia14658.html

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Mimas and Pandora dance



NASA / JPL / SSI / Emily Lakdawalla

Mimas-Pandora mutual event
Cassini watched Pandora and Mimas dance on the far side of Saturn's rings on May 15, 2013 at roughly 16:30 UT.

The original set of images was centered on Mimas but when I animated it like that, it was hard to tell what the rings were doing. So instead I aligned the frames vertically on the edge of the A ring, which makes it clearer that you're seeing the rings "close up." Cassini's orbit is currently highly inclined (it's tilted more than 60 degrees). At the time that Cassini took these photos, it was near periapsis and plunging rapidly fr om north to south; it would cross the ring plane just 8 hours later. So even though Mimas appears to be moving vertically in the animation, it's not; you're actually seeing an effect of Cassini's vertical motion.

Watch Mimas closely and you'll see it's rotating, too. If you notice a falling donut at the bottom of the image, it's an artifact -- a mote of dust somewh ere in the camera's optics.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2013/05151452-mimas-and-pandora-dance.html

[mefisto_x]

как Земля выглядела бы с кольцами как у Сатурна  http://io9.com/if-earth-had-a-ring-like-saturn-508750253

[Vikt(or)]

Любопытно как бы выглядела спутниковая группировка при наличии такого количества естественного мусора на орбите. Наверное вообще никак.

[Старый]

Помнится Вояджеры обнаружили в кольцах Сатурна "спицы". Что с ними теперь?

[pkl]

Крутятся.

[Старый]

А на снимках есть?

[pkl]

Да. Вот уже старая статья:
http://www.membrana.ru/particle/588
Ищите Saturn's spokes

[Старый]

Не, мне интересно что там с ними по данным Кассини. Ато както на снимках не видно...

[pkl]

Ну вообще то я Кассини и имел в виду:


Ниже видео с ютуба:
Вояджер-1:

Вояджер-2:

Кассини:


Феномен безусловно существует. Это похоже на облака пыли над кольцами. Считается, что это заряженные частицы пыли в магнитном поле планеты.

[Старый]

Интересно...

[pkl]

Система Сатурна, она вообще такая. Самая интересная в Солнечной системе. Там, если по ссылкам полазить, можно найти записи электромагнитных излучений, конвертированные в аудио. Это вообще нечто мозговыносное! Прям настоящая болтовня инопланетян!

[Stalky]

instml пишет:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/

[pkl]

Хотелось бы посмотреть в контексте