Sept 11th, 2011
The photo of Saturn below was taken by the Cassini space craft with Sun perfectly opposite that planet.
via NASA
"In the shadow of Saturn, unexpected wonders appear. The robotic Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn drifted in giant planet's shadow for about 12 hours in 2006 and looked back toward the eclipsed Sun. Cassini saw a view unlike any other. First, the night side of Saturn is seen to be partly lit by light reflected from its own majestic ring system. Next, the rings themselves appear dark when silhouetted against Saturn, but quite bright when viewed away from Saturn,slightly scattering sunlight, in this exaggerated color image. Saturn's rings light up so much that new rings were discovered, although they are hard to see in the image. Seen in spectacular detail, however, is Saturn's E ring, the ring created by the newly discovered ice-fountains of the moon Enceladus and the outermost ring visible above. Far in the distance, at the left, just above the bright main rings, is the almost ignorable pale blue dot of Earth."
Showing posts with label Cassini. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cassini. Show all posts
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Saturday, July 23, 2011
A "Big Storm"
July 23rd, 2011
Somehow, calling the astounding and ongoing atmospheric phenomena on Saturn a "storm" seems dismissive.
From a NASA press release earlier this month:
"On Dec. 5, 2010, Cassini first detected the storm that has been raging ever since. It appears approximately 35 degrees north latitude of Saturn. Pictures from Cassini's imaging cameras show the storm wrapping around the entire planet covering approximately 2 billion square miles (4 billion square kilometers)." EMPHASIS OURS
Somehow, calling the astounding and ongoing atmospheric phenomena on Saturn a "storm" seems dismissive.
From a NASA press release earlier this month:
"On Dec. 5, 2010, Cassini first detected the storm that has been raging ever since. It appears approximately 35 degrees north latitude of Saturn. Pictures from Cassini's imaging cameras show the storm wrapping around the entire planet covering approximately 2 billion square miles (4 billion square kilometers)." EMPHASIS OURS
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| For more images of this event click HERE |
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