Orbinaut Pete
ISSU Project Manager
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2008
- Messages
- 4,264
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
Updates Cassini Mission News and Updates
- Thread starter Orbinaut Pete
- Start date
Orbinaut Pete
ISSU Project Manager
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2008
- Messages
- 4,264
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
Orbinaut Pete
ISSU Project Manager
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2008
- Messages
- 4,264
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
Orbinaut Pete
ISSU Project Manager
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2008
- Messages
- 4,264
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
Orbinaut Pete
ISSU Project Manager
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2008
- Messages
- 4,264
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
JPL: "Raisin' Mountains on Saturn's Moon Titan".
JPL: "Cassini Hunting Enceladus 'Tigers' with Night Vision".
JPL: "Cassini Bags Enceladus 'Tigers'".
[Images] Enceladus, Tethys and Dione Rev 136 Raw Preview.
---------- Post added 16th Aug 2010 at 07:39 PM ---------- Previous post was 15th Aug 2010 at 10:25 PM ----------
Discovery News: "Cassini's Summer at Saturn".
The Planetary Society Blog: "Decoding a Titan crater".
---------- Post added 17th Aug 2010 at 04:36 PM ---------- Previous post was 16th Aug 2010 at 07:39 PM ----------
Spaceflight Now: "Cassini sees three moons in one flyby".
JPL: "Move Over Caravaggio: Cassini's Light and Dark Moons".
JPL: "Cassini Hunting Enceladus 'Tigers' with Night Vision".
JPL: "Cassini Bags Enceladus 'Tigers'".
[Images] Enceladus, Tethys and Dione Rev 136 Raw Preview.
---------- Post added 16th Aug 2010 at 07:39 PM ---------- Previous post was 15th Aug 2010 at 10:25 PM ----------
Discovery News: "Cassini's Summer at Saturn".
The Planetary Society Blog: "Decoding a Titan crater".
---------- Post added 17th Aug 2010 at 04:36 PM ---------- Previous post was 16th Aug 2010 at 07:39 PM ----------
Spaceflight Now: "Cassini sees three moons in one flyby".
JPL: "Move Over Caravaggio: Cassini's Light and Dark Moons".
Last edited:
Orbinaut Pete
ISSU Project Manager
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2008
- Messages
- 4,264
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
Orbinaut Pete
ISSU Project Manager
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2008
- Messages
- 4,264
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
orb
New member
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2009
- Messages
- 14,020
- Reaction score
- 4
- Points
- 0
Orbinaut Pete
ISSU Project Manager
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2008
- Messages
- 4,264
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
Spring on Titan brings sunshine and patchy clouds.
False-color image of cloud cover dissolving over Titan's north pole and clouds appearing in the southern mid latitudes.
› Full image and caption.
The northern hemisphere of Saturn's moon Titan is set for mainly fine spring weather, with polar skies clearing since the equinox in August last year. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIMS) aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been monitoring clouds on Titan regularly since the spacecraft entered orbit around Saturn in 2004. Now, a group led by Sébastien Rodriguez, a Cassini VIMS team collaborator based at Université Paris Diderot, France, has analyzed more than 2,000 VIMS images to create the first long-term study of Titan's weather using observational data that also includes the equinox. Equinox, when the sun shone directly over the equator, occurred in August 2009.
Rodriguez is presenting the results and new images at the European Planetary Science Congress in Rome on Sept. 22.
Though Titan's surface is far colder and lacks liquid water, this moon is a kind of "sister world" to Earth because it has a surface covered with organic material and an atmosphere whose chemical composition harkens back to an early Earth. Titan has a hydrological cycle similar to Earth's, though Titan's cycle depends on methane and ethane rather than water.
A season on Titan lasts about seven Earth years. Rodriguez and colleagues observed significant atmospheric changes between July 2004 (early summer in Titan's southern hemisphere) and April 2010 (the very start of northern spring). The images showed that cloud activity has recently decreased near both of Titan's poles. These regions had been heavily overcast during the late southern summer until 2008, a few months before the equinox.
Over the past six years, the scientists found that clouds clustered in three distinct latitude regions of Titan: large clouds at the north pole, patchy clouds at the south pole and a narrow belt around 40 degrees south. "However, we are now seeing evidence of a seasonal circulation turnover on Titan – the clouds at the south pole completely disappeared just before the equinox and the clouds in the north are thinning out," Rodriguez said. "This agrees with predictions from models and we are expecting to see cloud activity reverse from one hemisphere to another in the coming decade as southern winter approaches."
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson.
For a full version of this release, go to: www.europlanet-eu.org/outreach/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=288&Itemid=41
For more information about Cassini, go to: www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
False-color image of cloud cover dissolving over Titan's north pole and clouds appearing in the southern mid latitudes.
› Full image and caption.
The northern hemisphere of Saturn's moon Titan is set for mainly fine spring weather, with polar skies clearing since the equinox in August last year. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIMS) aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been monitoring clouds on Titan regularly since the spacecraft entered orbit around Saturn in 2004. Now, a group led by Sébastien Rodriguez, a Cassini VIMS team collaborator based at Université Paris Diderot, France, has analyzed more than 2,000 VIMS images to create the first long-term study of Titan's weather using observational data that also includes the equinox. Equinox, when the sun shone directly over the equator, occurred in August 2009.
Rodriguez is presenting the results and new images at the European Planetary Science Congress in Rome on Sept. 22.
Though Titan's surface is far colder and lacks liquid water, this moon is a kind of "sister world" to Earth because it has a surface covered with organic material and an atmosphere whose chemical composition harkens back to an early Earth. Titan has a hydrological cycle similar to Earth's, though Titan's cycle depends on methane and ethane rather than water.
A season on Titan lasts about seven Earth years. Rodriguez and colleagues observed significant atmospheric changes between July 2004 (early summer in Titan's southern hemisphere) and April 2010 (the very start of northern spring). The images showed that cloud activity has recently decreased near both of Titan's poles. These regions had been heavily overcast during the late southern summer until 2008, a few months before the equinox.
Over the past six years, the scientists found that clouds clustered in three distinct latitude regions of Titan: large clouds at the north pole, patchy clouds at the south pole and a narrow belt around 40 degrees south. "However, we are now seeing evidence of a seasonal circulation turnover on Titan – the clouds at the south pole completely disappeared just before the equinox and the clouds in the north are thinning out," Rodriguez said. "This agrees with predictions from models and we are expecting to see cloud activity reverse from one hemisphere to another in the coming decade as southern winter approaches."
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson.
For a full version of this release, go to: www.europlanet-eu.org/outreach/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=288&Itemid=41
For more information about Cassini, go to: www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
orb
New member
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2009
- Messages
- 14,020
- Reaction score
- 4
- Points
- 0
Astronomy Now: Cassini scoops Saturn's aurora:
NASA JPL: New Views of Saturn's Aurora, Captured by Cassini:
NASA JPL: New Views of Saturn's Aurora, Captured by Cassini:
Orbinaut Pete
ISSU Project Manager
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2008
- Messages
- 4,264
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
JPL: "Cassini Gazes at Veiled Titan".
Artist's concept of Cassini's Sept. 24, 2010, flyby of Saturn's moon Titan. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
› Larger view.http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/cassini/20100923/flyby20100923-full.jpg
NASA's Cassini spacecraft will swing high over Saturn's moon Titan on Friday, Sept. 24, taking a long, sustained look at the hazy moon. At closest approach, Cassini will fly within 8,175 kilometers (5,080 miles) above the hazy moon's surface. This flyby is the first in a series of high-altitude Titan flybys for Cassini over the next year and a half.
Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer instrument will be probing Titan's stratosphere to learn more about its vertical structure as the seasons change. Equinox, when the sun shone directly over the equator, occurred in August 2009, and the northern hemisphere is now in spring.
Another instrument, the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer, will be mapping an equatorial region known as Belet at a resolution of 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel. This mosaic will complement the mosaics that were obtained in earlier Titan flybys in January and April. This spectrometer will also look for clouds at northern mid-latitudes and near the poles.
Cassin's visible-light imaging cameras will also be taking images of Titan's trailing hemisphere, or the side that faces backward as Titan orbits around Saturn. If Titan cooperates and has a cloudy day, scientists plan to analyze the images for cloud patterns.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C.
More information about the Cassini-Huygens mission is at www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
---------- Post added 25th Sep 2010 at 12:22 AM ---------- Previous post was 24th Sep 2010 at 05:28 PM ----------
Cassini's First Dive Inside Saturn's Aurora.
The Cassini spacecraft has made the first observations from within the radio aurora of another planet than Earth. The measurements, which were taken when the spacecraft flew through an active auroral region in 2008, show some similarities and some contrasts between the radio auroral emissions generated at Saturn and those at Earth. Results were presented this week by Dr Laurent Lamy at the European Planetary Science Congress in Rome, and recently published in Geophysical Research Letters.
“So far, this is a unique event,” said Lamy (Observatoire de Paris, France). “Whereas the source region of Earth’s radio aurora has been studied by many missions, this is our first opportunity to observe the equivalent region at Saturn from the inside. From this single encounter, we have been able to build up a detailed snapshot of auroral activity using three of Cassini’s instruments. This gives us a fascinating insight into the processes that are generating Saturn’s radio aurora.”
Cassini encountered the auroral region at a distance of 247 million kilometres from Saturn’s cloud tops (about 4 times Saturn’s radius). Above the spectacular visible-light displays of Saturn’s Northern and Southern Lights, auroral emissions occur this far from the planet at radio wavelengths. The emissions are generated by fast moving electrons spiralling along Saturn’s magnetic field lines, which are threaded through the auroral region.
On 17 October 2008, Cassini’s MAG (magnetometer), RPWS (radio) and CAPS (electrons) instruments detected three successive curtains of active auroras. An international team of scientists has now combined magnetic, radio and particle in situ observations to build up a picture of the local radio source properties and the surrounding auroral plasma. They also identified the magnetic field lines along which radio aurora are emitted
“The instrument that measures radio waves, RPWS, can tell us the direction that each radio wave detected is travelling. By mapping this information onto magnetic field lines, we can work out the location of each radio source. In addition, we can project the source locations along the field lines that curve down to Saturn’s southern pole and visualise a radio oval comparable to the auroral features commonly seen at ultraviolet wavelengths. Unusually, the oval observed during this event is strongly distorted, which indicates a particularly enhanced auroral activity,” said Lamy.
Earth also has radio auroral emissions and these new results show that the process that generates radio aurora appears to be the same at both planets. Interestingly, there are two minor differences between the aurora at Earth and Saturn. At Earth, there is a cavity in the plasma above the auroral oval that rises for several thousand kilometres. The new observations show that this is not seen at Saturn. Secondly, radio sources were crossed at much further distances from the planet. These differences reflect intrinsic differences between the two magnetospheres, in terms of dimensions and planetary rotation speed.
Cassini crossed high latitude auroral field lines during 40 orbits in 2008, but this is the only time that the instruments detected unusually strong electric currents in that region in space with in situ evidence of an active aurora.
“We think that the unusual conditions responsible for these intense electric currents might have been triggered by a solar wind compression squeezing Saturn’s magnetic field and producing the observed auroras”, said Emma Bunce, a team member from the University of Leicester in the UK.
---------- Post added at 04:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:22 AM ----------
Amazing new Cassini image: Conjoined Moons.
Looking like half of a figure eight, two of Saturn's moons appear conjoined in this Cassini image.
The moon Dione, at the top in the image, is actually closer to the spacecraft here. However, because of the similar albedo, or reflectivity, of the two moons and because of the location of a particularly large crater near the south polar region of Dione, the moon appears blended seamlessly with Rhea. The large, faint crater Evander is centered at about 57 degrees south latitude, 145 degrees west longitude and can also be seen in the Dione south polar map (see PIA12579).
Lit terrain seen here is on the anti-Saturn side of Dione (1123 kilometers, 698 miles across) and on the area between the anti-Saturn and leading hemisphere on Rhea (1528 kilometers, 949 miles across).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 27, 2010. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (688,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 78 degrees. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (994,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 78 degrees. Image scale is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel on Dione and 10 kilometers (6 miles) on Rhea.
The Cassini Equinox Mission is a joint United States and European endeavor. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team consists of scientists from the US, England, France, and Germany. The imaging operations center and team lead (Dr. C. Porco) are based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini Equinox Mission visit http://ciclops.org, www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
Artist's concept of Cassini's Sept. 24, 2010, flyby of Saturn's moon Titan. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
› Larger view.http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/cassini/20100923/flyby20100923-full.jpg
NASA's Cassini spacecraft will swing high over Saturn's moon Titan on Friday, Sept. 24, taking a long, sustained look at the hazy moon. At closest approach, Cassini will fly within 8,175 kilometers (5,080 miles) above the hazy moon's surface. This flyby is the first in a series of high-altitude Titan flybys for Cassini over the next year and a half.
Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer instrument will be probing Titan's stratosphere to learn more about its vertical structure as the seasons change. Equinox, when the sun shone directly over the equator, occurred in August 2009, and the northern hemisphere is now in spring.
Another instrument, the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer, will be mapping an equatorial region known as Belet at a resolution of 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel. This mosaic will complement the mosaics that were obtained in earlier Titan flybys in January and April. This spectrometer will also look for clouds at northern mid-latitudes and near the poles.
Cassin's visible-light imaging cameras will also be taking images of Titan's trailing hemisphere, or the side that faces backward as Titan orbits around Saturn. If Titan cooperates and has a cloudy day, scientists plan to analyze the images for cloud patterns.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C.
More information about the Cassini-Huygens mission is at www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
---------- Post added 25th Sep 2010 at 12:22 AM ---------- Previous post was 24th Sep 2010 at 05:28 PM ----------
Cassini's First Dive Inside Saturn's Aurora.
The Cassini spacecraft has made the first observations from within the radio aurora of another planet than Earth. The measurements, which were taken when the spacecraft flew through an active auroral region in 2008, show some similarities and some contrasts between the radio auroral emissions generated at Saturn and those at Earth. Results were presented this week by Dr Laurent Lamy at the European Planetary Science Congress in Rome, and recently published in Geophysical Research Letters.
“So far, this is a unique event,” said Lamy (Observatoire de Paris, France). “Whereas the source region of Earth’s radio aurora has been studied by many missions, this is our first opportunity to observe the equivalent region at Saturn from the inside. From this single encounter, we have been able to build up a detailed snapshot of auroral activity using three of Cassini’s instruments. This gives us a fascinating insight into the processes that are generating Saturn’s radio aurora.”
Cassini encountered the auroral region at a distance of 247 million kilometres from Saturn’s cloud tops (about 4 times Saturn’s radius). Above the spectacular visible-light displays of Saturn’s Northern and Southern Lights, auroral emissions occur this far from the planet at radio wavelengths. The emissions are generated by fast moving electrons spiralling along Saturn’s magnetic field lines, which are threaded through the auroral region.
On 17 October 2008, Cassini’s MAG (magnetometer), RPWS (radio) and CAPS (electrons) instruments detected three successive curtains of active auroras. An international team of scientists has now combined magnetic, radio and particle in situ observations to build up a picture of the local radio source properties and the surrounding auroral plasma. They also identified the magnetic field lines along which radio aurora are emitted
“The instrument that measures radio waves, RPWS, can tell us the direction that each radio wave detected is travelling. By mapping this information onto magnetic field lines, we can work out the location of each radio source. In addition, we can project the source locations along the field lines that curve down to Saturn’s southern pole and visualise a radio oval comparable to the auroral features commonly seen at ultraviolet wavelengths. Unusually, the oval observed during this event is strongly distorted, which indicates a particularly enhanced auroral activity,” said Lamy.
Earth also has radio auroral emissions and these new results show that the process that generates radio aurora appears to be the same at both planets. Interestingly, there are two minor differences between the aurora at Earth and Saturn. At Earth, there is a cavity in the plasma above the auroral oval that rises for several thousand kilometres. The new observations show that this is not seen at Saturn. Secondly, radio sources were crossed at much further distances from the planet. These differences reflect intrinsic differences between the two magnetospheres, in terms of dimensions and planetary rotation speed.
Cassini crossed high latitude auroral field lines during 40 orbits in 2008, but this is the only time that the instruments detected unusually strong electric currents in that region in space with in situ evidence of an active aurora.
“We think that the unusual conditions responsible for these intense electric currents might have been triggered by a solar wind compression squeezing Saturn’s magnetic field and producing the observed auroras”, said Emma Bunce, a team member from the University of Leicester in the UK.
---------- Post added at 04:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:22 AM ----------
Amazing new Cassini image: Conjoined Moons.
Looking like half of a figure eight, two of Saturn's moons appear conjoined in this Cassini image.
The moon Dione, at the top in the image, is actually closer to the spacecraft here. However, because of the similar albedo, or reflectivity, of the two moons and because of the location of a particularly large crater near the south polar region of Dione, the moon appears blended seamlessly with Rhea. The large, faint crater Evander is centered at about 57 degrees south latitude, 145 degrees west longitude and can also be seen in the Dione south polar map (see PIA12579).
Lit terrain seen here is on the anti-Saturn side of Dione (1123 kilometers, 698 miles across) and on the area between the anti-Saturn and leading hemisphere on Rhea (1528 kilometers, 949 miles across).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 27, 2010. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (688,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 78 degrees. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (994,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 78 degrees. Image scale is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel on Dione and 10 kilometers (6 miles) on Rhea.
The Cassini Equinox Mission is a joint United States and European endeavor. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team consists of scientists from the US, England, France, and Germany. The imaging operations center and team lead (Dr. C. Porco) are based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini Equinox Mission visit http://ciclops.org, www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
Orbinaut Pete
ISSU Project Manager
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2008
- Messages
- 4,264
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
Orbinaut Pete
ISSU Project Manager
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2008
- Messages
- 4,264
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
JPL: "Hello, Saturn Summer Solstice: Cassini's New Chapter".
Artist concept of Cassini spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL.
Turning a midsummer night's dream into reality, NASA's Cassini spacecraft begins its new mission extension -- the Cassini Solstice Mission -- today. The mission extension will take Cassini a few months past Saturn's northern summer solstice (or midsummer) through September 2017. It will enable scientists to study seasonal changes and other long-term weather changes on Saturn and its moons.
Cassini had arrived just after Saturn's northern winter solstice in 2004, and the extension continues a few months past the northern summer solstice in May 2017. A complete seasonal period on Saturn has never been studied at this level of detail.
Cassini has revealed a bounty of scientific discoveries since its launch in 1997, including previously unknown characteristics of the Earth-like world of Saturn's moon Titan, and the plume of water vapor and organic particles spewing from another moon, Enceladus.
The Cassini Solstice Mission will enable continued study of these intriguing worlds. It will also allow scientists to continue observations of Saturn's rings and the magnetic bubble around the planet, known as the magnetosphere. Near the end of the mission, the spacecraft will make repeated dives between Saturn and its rings to obtain in-depth knowledge of the gas giant. During these dives, the spacecraft will study the internal structure of Saturn, its magnetic fluctuations and ring mass.
Cassini entered orbit around Saturn in 2004. Mission managers had originally planned for a four-year tour of the Saturnian system. In 2008, Cassini received a mission extension through September 2010 to probe the planet and its moons through equinox, when the sun was directly over the equator. Equinox, which occurred in August 2009, marked the turn from southern fall to northern spring. The second mission extension, called the Cassini Solstice Mission, was announced earlier this year.
"After nearly seven years in transit and six years in Saturn orbit, this spacecraft still just hums along," said Bob Mitchell, Cassini program manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "With seven more years to go, the science should be just as exciting as what we've seen so far."
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
More Cassini information is available, at www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
Artist concept of Cassini spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL.
Turning a midsummer night's dream into reality, NASA's Cassini spacecraft begins its new mission extension -- the Cassini Solstice Mission -- today. The mission extension will take Cassini a few months past Saturn's northern summer solstice (or midsummer) through September 2017. It will enable scientists to study seasonal changes and other long-term weather changes on Saturn and its moons.
Cassini had arrived just after Saturn's northern winter solstice in 2004, and the extension continues a few months past the northern summer solstice in May 2017. A complete seasonal period on Saturn has never been studied at this level of detail.
Cassini has revealed a bounty of scientific discoveries since its launch in 1997, including previously unknown characteristics of the Earth-like world of Saturn's moon Titan, and the plume of water vapor and organic particles spewing from another moon, Enceladus.
The Cassini Solstice Mission will enable continued study of these intriguing worlds. It will also allow scientists to continue observations of Saturn's rings and the magnetic bubble around the planet, known as the magnetosphere. Near the end of the mission, the spacecraft will make repeated dives between Saturn and its rings to obtain in-depth knowledge of the gas giant. During these dives, the spacecraft will study the internal structure of Saturn, its magnetic fluctuations and ring mass.
Cassini entered orbit around Saturn in 2004. Mission managers had originally planned for a four-year tour of the Saturnian system. In 2008, Cassini received a mission extension through September 2010 to probe the planet and its moons through equinox, when the sun was directly over the equator. Equinox, which occurred in August 2009, marked the turn from southern fall to northern spring. The second mission extension, called the Cassini Solstice Mission, was announced earlier this year.
"After nearly seven years in transit and six years in Saturn orbit, this spacecraft still just hums along," said Bob Mitchell, Cassini program manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "With seven more years to go, the science should be just as exciting as what we've seen so far."
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
More Cassini information is available, at www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
Orbinaut Pete
ISSU Project Manager
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2008
- Messages
- 4,264
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
SPACE.com: "Cassini Spacecraft Begins New Study of Saturn's Seasons".
----------
Check out this amazing new Cassini image!
Highlighting Plumes.
At least four distinct plumes of water ice spew out from the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus in this dramatically illuminated image.
Light reflected off Saturn is illuminating the surface of the moon while the sun, almost directly behind Enceladus, is backlighting the plumes. See PIA11688 to learn more about Enceladus and its plumes.
This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Enceladus (504 kilometers, 313 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 25, 2009. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 617,000 kilometers (383,000 miles) from Enceladus and at a Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 174 degrees. Image scale is 4 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini Equinox Mission is a joint United States and European endeavor. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team consists of scientists from the US, England, France, and Germany. The imaging operations center and team lead (Dr. C. Porco) are based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini Equinox Mission visit http://ciclops.org, www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
----------
Check out this amazing new Cassini image!
Highlighting Plumes.
At least four distinct plumes of water ice spew out from the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus in this dramatically illuminated image.
Light reflected off Saturn is illuminating the surface of the moon while the sun, almost directly behind Enceladus, is backlighting the plumes. See PIA11688 to learn more about Enceladus and its plumes.
This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Enceladus (504 kilometers, 313 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 25, 2009. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 617,000 kilometers (383,000 miles) from Enceladus and at a Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 174 degrees. Image scale is 4 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini Equinox Mission is a joint United States and European endeavor. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team consists of scientists from the US, England, France, and Germany. The imaging operations center and team lead (Dr. C. Porco) are based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini Equinox Mission visit http://ciclops.org, www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
Orbinaut Pete
ISSU Project Manager
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2008
- Messages
- 4,264
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
NASA: "Saturn's Icy Moon May Keep Oceans Liquid with Wobble".
JPL: "Cassini Catches Saturn Moons in Paintball Fight".
---------- Post added 9th Oct 2010 at 09:30 PM ---------- Previous post was 8th Oct 2010 at 11:13 PM ----------
SpaceRef: "NASA Cassini Images: Two Snapshots Of Titan".
JPL: "Cassini Catches Saturn Moons in Paintball Fight".
---------- Post added 9th Oct 2010 at 09:30 PM ---------- Previous post was 8th Oct 2010 at 11:13 PM ----------
SpaceRef: "NASA Cassini Images: Two Snapshots Of Titan".
Orbinaut Pete
ISSU Project Manager
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2008
- Messages
- 4,264
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
JPL: "The (Long) Weekend Warrior: Nine Moons, 62 Hours".
These three views of Saturn's moon Rhea were made from data obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI/LPI.
› Full image and caption.
Taking a long-weekend road trip, NASA's Cassini spacecraft successfully glided near nine Saturnian moons, sending back a stream of raw images as mementos of its adrenaline-fueled expedition. The spacecraft sent back particularly intriguing images of the moons Dione and Rhea.
The Dione and Rhea pictures are the highest-resolution views yet of parts of their surfaces. The views of the southern part of Dione's leading hemisphere (the part of the moon that faces forward in its orbit around Saturn) and the equatorial region of Rhea's leading hemisphere are more detailed than the last time we saw these terrains with NASA's Voyager spacecraft in the early 1980s.
Of the five big icy moons of Saturn, Dione and Rhea are often considered a pair because they orbit close to each other, are darker than the others, and exhibit similar patterns of light reflecting off them. These new images, however, highlight the differences between these sister moons.
Both images show similar geographic regions on each satellite. However, scientists can identify differences in geological histories of the two bodies from differences in the numbers and sizes of visible craters on their surfaces. The number and size of craters on a body's surface help indicate the age of that surface – the more craters there are and the larger they are, the older the surface is.
Rhea, for example, shows ancient, intense bombardments throughout this region. However, the same region of Dione is divided into distinct areas that exhibit variations in the number and size of preserved craters. In particular, while parts of Dione are heavily cratered like Rhea, there are other areas covered by relatively smooth plains. Those areas have many small craters, but few large impact scars, which indicates that they are geologically younger than the heavily cratered areas. The smooth plains must have been resurfaced at some point in Dione's past -- an event that seems to be missing from Rhea's geological history on this side of the moon.
Images of the moon Mimas, captured just before it went into shadow behind Saturn, will be compared to thermal maps made earlier this year that showed an unexpected "Pac-Man" heat pattern. (See for more details.)
Cassini also caught a picture of the tiny, 4-kilometer-wide (3-mile-wide) moon Pallene, in front of the planet Saturn, which is more than 120,000 kilometers (75,000 miles) wide at its equator.
Cassini's elliptical orbital pattern around Saturn means it can target moons for flybys about once or twice a month. The flybys on this particular Cassini road trip were "non-targeted" flybys, meaning navigators did not refine Cassini's path to fly over particular points on each moon.
Cassini's long weekend started on Thursday, Oct. 14, at 5:07 p.m. UTC (9:07 a.m. PDT), when it passed by Saturn's largest moon Titan at an altitude of 172,368 kilometers (107,104 miles) above the surface. Then came a whirlwind 21 hours in which Cassini flew by Polydeuces at 116,526 kilometers (72,406 miles), Mimas at 69,950 kilometers (43,465 miles), Pallene at 36,118 kilometers (22,443 miles), Telesto at 48,455 kilometers (30,109 miles), Methone at 105,868 kilometers (65,783 miles), Aegaeon at 96,754 kilometers (60,120 miles) and Dione at 31,710 kilometers (19,704 miles). Cassini's last visit -- Rhea at 38,752 kilometers (24,079 miles) – took place at 6:47 a.m. UTC on Oct. 17 (10:47 p.m. PDT on Oct. 16).
Scientists decided in advance which observations they wanted to make while the spacecraft was cruising past all the moons. They chose to obtain images of Titan, Mimas, Pallene, Dione and Rhea. They also obtained thermal scans of Mimas, Dione and Rhea.
For more raw images, visit: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
More Cassini information is available, at www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
----------
The Planetary Society Blog: "Every-other-line truncation of Cassini images".
These three views of Saturn's moon Rhea were made from data obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI/LPI.
› Full image and caption.
Taking a long-weekend road trip, NASA's Cassini spacecraft successfully glided near nine Saturnian moons, sending back a stream of raw images as mementos of its adrenaline-fueled expedition. The spacecraft sent back particularly intriguing images of the moons Dione and Rhea.
The Dione and Rhea pictures are the highest-resolution views yet of parts of their surfaces. The views of the southern part of Dione's leading hemisphere (the part of the moon that faces forward in its orbit around Saturn) and the equatorial region of Rhea's leading hemisphere are more detailed than the last time we saw these terrains with NASA's Voyager spacecraft in the early 1980s.
Of the five big icy moons of Saturn, Dione and Rhea are often considered a pair because they orbit close to each other, are darker than the others, and exhibit similar patterns of light reflecting off them. These new images, however, highlight the differences between these sister moons.
Both images show similar geographic regions on each satellite. However, scientists can identify differences in geological histories of the two bodies from differences in the numbers and sizes of visible craters on their surfaces. The number and size of craters on a body's surface help indicate the age of that surface – the more craters there are and the larger they are, the older the surface is.
Rhea, for example, shows ancient, intense bombardments throughout this region. However, the same region of Dione is divided into distinct areas that exhibit variations in the number and size of preserved craters. In particular, while parts of Dione are heavily cratered like Rhea, there are other areas covered by relatively smooth plains. Those areas have many small craters, but few large impact scars, which indicates that they are geologically younger than the heavily cratered areas. The smooth plains must have been resurfaced at some point in Dione's past -- an event that seems to be missing from Rhea's geological history on this side of the moon.
Images of the moon Mimas, captured just before it went into shadow behind Saturn, will be compared to thermal maps made earlier this year that showed an unexpected "Pac-Man" heat pattern. (See for more details.)
Cassini also caught a picture of the tiny, 4-kilometer-wide (3-mile-wide) moon Pallene, in front of the planet Saturn, which is more than 120,000 kilometers (75,000 miles) wide at its equator.
Cassini's elliptical orbital pattern around Saturn means it can target moons for flybys about once or twice a month. The flybys on this particular Cassini road trip were "non-targeted" flybys, meaning navigators did not refine Cassini's path to fly over particular points on each moon.
Cassini's long weekend started on Thursday, Oct. 14, at 5:07 p.m. UTC (9:07 a.m. PDT), when it passed by Saturn's largest moon Titan at an altitude of 172,368 kilometers (107,104 miles) above the surface. Then came a whirlwind 21 hours in which Cassini flew by Polydeuces at 116,526 kilometers (72,406 miles), Mimas at 69,950 kilometers (43,465 miles), Pallene at 36,118 kilometers (22,443 miles), Telesto at 48,455 kilometers (30,109 miles), Methone at 105,868 kilometers (65,783 miles), Aegaeon at 96,754 kilometers (60,120 miles) and Dione at 31,710 kilometers (19,704 miles). Cassini's last visit -- Rhea at 38,752 kilometers (24,079 miles) – took place at 6:47 a.m. UTC on Oct. 17 (10:47 p.m. PDT on Oct. 16).
Scientists decided in advance which observations they wanted to make while the spacecraft was cruising past all the moons. They chose to obtain images of Titan, Mimas, Pallene, Dione and Rhea. They also obtained thermal scans of Mimas, Dione and Rhea.
For more raw images, visit: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
More Cassini information is available, at www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
----------
The Planetary Society Blog: "Every-other-line truncation of Cassini images".
Orbinaut Pete
ISSU Project Manager
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2008
- Messages
- 4,264
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
JPL: "Spring Has Sprung ... On Titan".
NASA's Cassini spacecraft obtained this raw image of Saturn's moon Titan on Oct. 18, 2010. Bright clouds streak the moon's midsection, likely an indication of changing seasons and the arrival of spring in the northern hemisphere. Cassini's imaging camera was about 2.5 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) away from Titan. The rings of Saturn faintly etch the left side of this image. The image has not been validated or calibrated. Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI
> Full image and caption.
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has sent back dreamy raw images of Saturn's moon Titan that show the appearance of clouds around the moon's midsection. These bright clouds likely appeared because the moon is changing seasons and spring has arrived in Titan's northern hemisphere. The images were taken from about 2.5 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) away from Titan on Oct. 18, 2010, and also show the faint etchings of Saturn's rings. One of the new raw images also features a cameo from the icy moon Tethys, which looks smaller and brighter than Titan in the image.
More raw images are online at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
More Cassini information is available at www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
----------
The Planetary Society Blog: "A Rhea flyby and a cloudy Titan with Tethys in color".
NASA's Cassini spacecraft obtained this raw image of Saturn's moon Titan on Oct. 18, 2010. Bright clouds streak the moon's midsection, likely an indication of changing seasons and the arrival of spring in the northern hemisphere. Cassini's imaging camera was about 2.5 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) away from Titan. The rings of Saturn faintly etch the left side of this image. The image has not been validated or calibrated. Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI
> Full image and caption.
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has sent back dreamy raw images of Saturn's moon Titan that show the appearance of clouds around the moon's midsection. These bright clouds likely appeared because the moon is changing seasons and spring has arrived in Titan's northern hemisphere. The images were taken from about 2.5 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) away from Titan on Oct. 18, 2010, and also show the faint etchings of Saturn's rings. One of the new raw images also features a cameo from the icy moon Tethys, which looks smaller and brighter than Titan in the image.
More raw images are online at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
More Cassini information is available at www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
----------
The Planetary Society Blog: "A Rhea flyby and a cloudy Titan with Tethys in color".
Similar threads
