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29 July 2010
Ring Around Rhea? Probably Not
Back in 2005, a suite of six instruments on the Cassini spacecraft detected what was thought to be an extensive debris disk around Saturn's moon Rhea, and while there was no visible evidence, researchers thought that perhaps there was a diffuse ring around the moon. This would have been the first ring ever found around [...]
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26 July 2010
Prometheus: the Michelangelo of Saturn
I've frequently said the Cassini spacecraft is an artist, so when Carolyn Porco, the mission's imaging team lead, mentioned on Twitter that Saturn's moon Prometheus is akin to Michelangelo, I had to take a look. Wow, this gorgeous image is suitable for framing! Visible in the perturbed, thin F ring, is the potato-shaped Prometheus, and [...]
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09 July 2010
Mini Moons Are Buzzing Through Saturn's Rings
Scientists for NASA's Cassini mission noticed some weird-looking propeller-like shapes in the outer edge of Saturn's A ring. What could be creating these unusual contours? A closer look revealed they were being formed by dozens of moving moonlets. Normally, these kilometer-sized moons would have been almost impossible to see, since they are embedded within the [...]
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06 July 2010
Small Moon Makes Big Waves
Saturn's moon Daphnis is only 8 kilometers wide, but it has a fairly substantial effect on the A ring, making waves on the ring's edge. According to Carolyn Porco on Twitter, this is the closest look yet at this mini, moving moon. Daphnis resides in the Keeler Gap, which is about 42 km wide, but [...]
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21 June 2010
Titan + Dione = New Desktop
Another stunning image from the Cassini spacecraft, suitable for wallpaper on your desktop. Click image for larger version, or click here for a large 1.125 MB version. This is Saturn's moon Dione, in crisp detail, against a hazy, ghostly Titan. Simply stunning. The "wispy" terrain on Dione is visible, and on Titan are hints of [...]
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10 June 2010
Latest Wall Art from Cassini
Oh, wow — what a gorgeous image! Just the latest from our resident artist in space, the Cassini spacecraft. Rhea, saturn's second largest moon sits in front of the rings, joined by two smaller moons in the background. Rhea (1528 kilometers, 949 miles across) is in the center foreground. Janus (179 kilometers, 111 miles [...]
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19 May 2010
Incredible Images of Enceladus From Cassini's Latest Flyby
Wow. Cassini the artist has struck again, this time with amazing images from the close flyby of Enceladus that we wrote a preview about earlier this week. Cassini flew by Enceladus during the early hours of May 18 UTC, coming within about 435 kilometers (270 miles) of the moon's surface. The raw images [...]
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10 May 2010
Incredible! Cassini as Houdini Cuts Titan in Half
There's nothing up the Cassini imaging team's sleeves in this image; it is real! Is the moon Titan being cut in half by Saturn's rings? What's happening here is that the middle part of the rings are made dark as Saturn casts its shadow across them. Cassini was just in the right [...]
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15 April 2010
Enceladus is Blowing Bubbles
Observations from two instruments on the Cassini spacecraft shows the moon Enceladus leaves a complex pattern of ripples and bubbles in its wake as it orbit Saturn. The ringed planet's magnetosphere is filled with electrically charged particles (plasma) originating from both the planet and its moons, and as Enceladus plows through the plasma "spiky" [...]
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14 April 2010
News Flash: Cassini Captures First Movie of Lightning on Saturn
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured images of lightning on Saturn, allowing the scientists to create the first movie showing lightning flashing on another planet. "Ever since the beginning of the Cassini mission, a major goal of the Imaging Team has been the detection of Saturnian lightning," said team leader Carolyn Porco in an email. [...]
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29 March 2010
Pacman Eats The Death Star!
Mimas has drawn a fair amount of attention with its "Death Star"-like crater, but with new images from the Cassini spacecraft, this icy moon of Saturn has just gotten a lot more interesting. The highest-resolution-yet temperature map and images of Mimas reveal surprising patterns on the surface of the small moon, including unexpected hot [...]
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16 March 2010
Cassini the Artist: Shadows, Ringshine, Double Crescent Moons
I often ponder whether the Cassini spacecraft is a better scientist or artist. I found three recent images from Cassini that definitely give the nod to artist, but surely there's lots of great science here as well. In this image, Saturn casts its shadow on the rings, but it also shows how the [...]
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26 February 2010
More Jaw-Droppers from Cassini
The Cassini mission keeps churning out the hits, and here's a collection of some of the latest stunning images released by the CICLOPS (Cassini Imaging for Central Operations) team. Above, the small moon Janus is almost hidden between the planet's rings and the larger moon Rhea. The northern part of Janus can be [...]
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15 February 2010
Cassini Survives Close Encounter of the Death Star Kind!
On February 13, 2010, Cassini flew by Saturn's moon Mimas, coming as close as 9,500 km. It passed directly over Herschel, a giant crater whose creation almost shattered the moon … and which, in its appearance in some earlier images, earned Mimas the nickname "Death Star", after the iconic Star Wars prop. The Cassini team has just [...]
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12 February 2010
On New Year's Eve, Cassini Will Stare at the Death Star's Superlaser
OK, it's actually the Herschel crater on Mimas, a smallish moon of Saturn (and it's the eve of Chinese New Year, February 13th, 2010), but it's a cool headline, don't you think? Cassini will be very busy that day, which begins with a rare sunrise – the Sun goes behind Saturn (from Cassini's perspective) – followed [...]
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