Cassini and Saturn's moons - Page 12

01101001 · #**331** (**permalink**) 14-October-2005, 01:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wolverine

Wow, that last shot is breathtaking.

Yeah. It's so cool that it looks like CGI!

01101001 · #**332** (**permalink**) 18-October-2005, 07:44 AM

Ice Moon Rendezvous -- A Cool Movie

Quote:

The movie begins with Cassini during its approach about 107,000 kilometers (66,000 miles) from the icy [Dione]. Few surface details are discernable from this distance, but the view quickly improves. The movie jumps to a point 39,000 kilometers (24,000 miles) from Dione, with Saturn's atmosphere now in the background and draped by threadlike ring shadows.

Wolverine · #**333** (**permalink**) 18-October-2005, 08:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 01101001

Yeah. It's so cool that it looks like CGI!

Upside-down at that.

Kullat Nunu · #**334** (**permalink**) 18-October-2005, 04:25 PM

Dione flyby press release is available: Cassini Views Dione, a Frigid Ice World.

Here are the press release images. Look at that t image of Dione crescent -- I've never seen so clearly icy moon.

cran · #**335** (**permalink**) 19-October-2005, 06:15 AM

it's beautiful!

Disinfo Agent · #**336** (**permalink**) 19-October-2005, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 01101001

Ice Moon Rendezvous -- A Cool Movie

When the picture periodically fades out, it's because Saturn is between the moon and the Sun, isn't it?

ngc3314 · #**337** (**permalink**) 20-October-2005, 04:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Disinfo Agent

When the picture periodically fades out, it's because Saturn is between the moon and the Sun, isn't it?

That animation was put together from a series of stills - the fades were just a pleasing way to go from one to the next.

Meanwhile, catering to my taste for silhouettes - Titan, rings, Prometheus, and Tethys, or maybe Mimas. The JPL simulator orbital elements may be a little out of date - I can't find this configuration on October 18th.

Edit: I should have realized that the phase of Titan wasn't quite right for the 18th. I now think it was on the 17th around 1900 UT, which would make the smaller moon in front Dione. I still have a bad case of "mid-sized icy moons look alike from a distance". The simulator elements now look much more like the Cassini images... apologies for implied sloppiness!

Disinfo Agent · #**338** (**permalink**) 20-October-2005, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ngc3314

That animation was put together from a series of stills - the fades were just a pleasing way to go from one to the next.

Thanks for the explanation. I should have checked the dates, and the revolution period of Dione.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ngc3314

Meanwhile, catering to my taste for silhouettes - Titan, rings, Prometheus, and Tethys, or maybe Mimas. The JPL simulator orbital elements may be a little out of date - I can't find this configuration on October 18th.

Beautiful!

Kullat Nunu · #**339** (**permalink**) 20-October-2005, 01:01 PM

This one is one of the weirdest images Cassini has taken so far.

Partially Saturn-lit Dione is occulting Titan, but the camera is centered on Prometheus which is visible left to the rings. If you look closely, you can see Telesto on the right side of the ring about the same height as Titan's center.

Oh, it is almost the same image that ngc3314 posted.

Disinfo Agent · #**340** (**permalink**) 20-October-2005, 02:20 PM

Titan's right pole looks flattened. Is that natural, or some photographic artifact?

ToSeek · #**341** (**permalink**) 20-October-2005, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kullat Nunu

This one is one of the weirdest images Cassini has taken so far.

Partially Saturn-lit Dione is occulting Titan, but the camera is centered on Prometheus which is visible left to the rings. If you look closely, you can see Telesto on the right side of the ring about the same height as Titan's center.

Oh, it is almost the same image that ngc3314 posted.

I half-expect to see some sort of black obelisk floating around as well.

Kullat Nunu · #**342** (**permalink**) 20-October-2005, 03:34 PM

It stands on the surface of Iapetus...

01101001 · #**343** (**permalink**) 20-October-2005, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Disinfo Agent

Titan's right pole looks flattened. Is that natural, or some photographic artifact?

[Titan's] Squashed Pole

Quote:

Saturn's planet-sized moon Titan displays a surprisingly flattened-looking north pole in this Cassini image. The cause of this flattening is not presently known.

Disinfo Agent · #**344** (**permalink**) 20-October-2005, 07:32 PM

Thanks!

ToSeek · #**345** (**permalink**) 24-October-2005, 05:43 PM

Closeup of Dione

Quote:

The Cassini spacecraft continues to prove that the closer the view of the myriad worlds constituting the Saturn system, the more interesting and varied the views become. This close-up view of icy Dione reveals a wonderful variety of surface features that are simultaneously familiar and unlike any other place in the solar system.

ToSeek · #**346** (**permalink**) 03-November-2005, 06:01 PM

NASA Cassini Movie: Tethys Meets Dione

Quote:

This brief movie catches Saturn's moon Tethys partially occulting the moon Dione. It shows the trailing hemispheres of both moons (terrain centered on roughly 270 degrees longitude). Some rotation is evident on Tethys during the sequence.

01101001 · #**347** (**permalink**) 04-November-2005, 12:11 AM

Moons with Separate Paths

Quote:

Saturn's expansive rings separate the moon's Tethys (at the top) from Dione (at the bottom). Even in this distant view, it is easy to see that the moons' surfaces, and likely their evolutionary histories, are very different.

Both moons are on the far side of the rings in this scene, which shows their Saturn-facing hemispheres (terrain centered on 0 degrees longitude). The dark shadow across the rings is cast by Saturn's southern hemisphere.

Big Bangs on Tethys

Quote:

Cassini offers up this nice view of the craters Odysseus (at the top) and Melanthius (at the bottom) on Saturn's moon Tethys. Melanthius appears to have an elongated mountain range, rather than a single central peak, at its center.

Disinfo Agent · #**348** (**permalink**) 04-November-2005, 12:56 PM

I liked this picture:

Quote:

The Saturn moon Mimas is much smaller than Rhea, but the geometry of this scene exaggerates the actual differences in size. Here, Mimas is on the opposite side of the rings from Rhea and Cassini. Mimas' diameter is 397 kilometers (247 miles), while Rhea's diameter is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles).

01101001 · #**349** (**permalink**) 15-November-2005, 07:31 AM

The Face-off

Quote:

The moons Dione and Tethys face each other across the gulf of Saturn's rings. Here, the Cassini spacecraft looks on the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Tethys below and the anti-Saturn side of Dione above. The dark groove in the rings is the Cassini Division.

01101001 · #**350** (**permalink**) 16-November-2005, 10:37 AM

Iapetus, November 11, 2005

Quote:

The camera was pointing toward IAPETUS at approximately 441,407 kilometers away[...]

Disinfo Agent · #**351** (**permalink**) 16-November-2005, 04:00 PM

That's one dark moon!

01101001 · #**352** (**permalink**) 16-November-2005, 11:15 PM

Pandora's Color Close-up

Quote:

Cassini's best close-up view of Saturn's F ring shepherd moon, Pandora, shows that this small ring-moon is coated in fine dust-sized icy material.

Craters formed on this object by impacts appear to be covered by debris, a process that probably happens rapidly in a geologic sense. The grooves and small ridges on Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) suggest that fractures affect the overlying smooth material.

ToSeek · #**353** (**permalink**) 18-November-2005, 07:29 PM

A Cassini Radar Retrospective Of Titan

Quote:

This set of images shows the areas mapped so far on Saturn's moon Titan by the Cassini radar mapper using its synthetic aperture radar imaging mode.

Disinfo Agent · #**354** (**permalink**) 22-November-2005, 10:48 PM

Dione's wispy face.

01101001 · #**355** (**permalink**) 23-November-2005, 07:18 PM

On Approach to Dione

Quote:

Cassini prepared for its rendezvous with Dione on Oct. 11, 2005, capturing the brilliant, cratered iceball in front of its shadow-draped planet.

The terrain seen here becomes notably darker toward the west, and is crosscut by the bright, fresh canyons that form wispy markings on Dione's trailing hemisphere. Dione is 1,126 kilometers (700 miles) across.

Wolverine · #**356** (**permalink**) 30-November-2005, 05:28 AM

Man, that's pretty.

Spacemad · #**357** (**permalink**) 30-November-2005, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wolverine

Man, that's pretty.

I must agree with you, Wolverine! It's a tremendous image of this "ice ball" in space!
Cassini is returning the best images ever seen of these little moons orbiting Saturn - each new image seems to be superior to any previous image !
I'm "hoarding" these images - just like a squirrel - for some future moment when I can include them in an update to my Space Page sometime in the new year!!!!

Kullat Nunu · #**358** (**permalink**) 30-November-2005, 02:02 PM

That image is almost identical to this extremely beautiful true color image of Dione.

Disinfo Agent · #**359** (**permalink**) 30-November-2005, 07:36 PM

Fountains in Enceladus

Tacitus · #**360** (**permalink**) 30-November-2005, 10:52 PM

These NASA fellows are getting too clever by half. Now they've managed to catch one minor moon eclipsing another...

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedi.../N00043518.jpg

One of the moons is Epimethus (from the caption). Anyone know what the other is?

(The sequence of photos is in the Raw Images section of the Cassini website).

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