Science

n2doc

(47,953 posts) Thu Oct 17, 2013, 08:35 PM Oct 2013

An Incredible View of Saturn that Could Only Be Seen by a Visiting Spacecraft

So what did NASA do during the US government shutdown? You can’t just turn off spacecraft that are operating millions of miles away, so missions like the Mars rovers and the Cassini spacecraft at Saturn continued to send back images to Earth during the 16 days that most of NASA wasn’t up and running like usual. On October 10, 2013, as Cassini flew high above the planet’s equatorial plane, the spacecraft’s camera took 36 images of Saturn, a dozen each using the various red, green, and blue filters used to create color images. The images were transferred back to Earth and put on the Cassini raw images page. Gordon Ugarkovic from Croatia, and a member of the image editing wizards at UnmannedSpaceflight.com, grabbed the raw files, processed them, then assembled the images into this jaw-dropping mosaic.

This is a view from Saturn that we could never get from Earth; only a spacecraft orbiting the planet could take it. You can see the north pole and the swirling maelstrom of clouds that creates the hexagonal polar vortex, the thin bands in Saturn’s atmosphere, and — of course — what really stands out is the incredible view of Saturn’s rings. To see the original 3 MB version, see this page on UMSF.

“You shouldn’t be surprised to see processing artifacts here and there,” cautioned Ugarkovic via email to Universe Today. “It is, after all, based on raw JPEG images only.”

more

http://www.flickr.com/photos/badastronomy/10328043663/sizes/c/in/photostream/

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/105593/an-incredible-view-of-saturn-that-could-only-be-seen-by-a-visiting-spacecraft/

13 replies

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An Incredible View of Saturn that Could Only Be Seen by a Visiting Spacecraft (Original Post) n2doc Oct 2013 OP

I bet rings aren't rare in the universe. Spitfire of ATJ Oct 2013 #1

If they are, I suspect most are like Jupiter's and Uranus' ThoughtCriminal Oct 2013 #2

Must resist a moonshot,....must resist a moonshot,....must resist a moonshot.... Spitfire of ATJ Oct 2013 #5

Sweet picture of Saturn! Initech Oct 2013 #3

Iapetus OxQQme Oct 2013 #4

The wacky giant hexagon is still there. tridim Oct 2013 #6

I love pictures like this Victor_c3 Oct 2013 #7

They look too perfect to be real, even though they are. IrishAyes Oct 2013 #10

These worlds we know so little about. ffr Oct 2013 #8

Fuckin awesome. Aldo Leopold Oct 2013 #9

And now for something completely different rocktivity Oct 2013 #11

meh Bucky Oct 2013 #12

Isn't this incredible? JohnnyRingo Oct 2013 #13

Spitfire of ATJ

(32,723 posts)

1. I bet rings aren't rare in the universe.

Reply to n2doc (Original post)

Thu Oct 17, 2013, 09:53 PM

Oct 2013

ThoughtCriminal

(14,047 posts)

2. If they are, I suspect most are like Jupiter's and Uranus'

Reply to Spitfire of ATJ (Reply #1)

Thu Oct 17, 2013, 10:16 PM

Oct 2013

Thin, barely visible. Ring systems like Saturn? I can't wait to find out.

Spitfire of ATJ

(32,723 posts)

5. Must resist a moonshot,....must resist a moonshot,....must resist a moonshot....

Reply to ThoughtCriminal (Reply #2)

Fri Oct 18, 2013, 12:03 AM

Oct 2013

Initech

(100,080 posts)

3. Sweet picture of Saturn!

Reply to n2doc (Original post)

Thu Oct 17, 2013, 10:41 PM

Oct 2013

OxQQme

(2,550 posts)

4. Iapetus

Reply to n2doc (Original post)

Thu Oct 17, 2013, 10:55 PM

Oct 2013

Last edited Thu Oct 17, 2013, 11:41 PM - Edit history (1)

One Saturn's moons:

<snip> … the ship had long since passed the boundary set by outermost Phoebe, moving backward in a wildly eccentric orbit eight million miles from its primary. Ahead of it now lay Iapetus, Hyperion, Titan, Rhea, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus, Mimas, Janus – and the rings themselves. All the satellites showed a maze of surface detail … Titan alone – three thousand miles in diameter, and as large as Mercury – would occupy … months …

There was more; already he was certain that Iapetus was his goal.

… One hemisphere of the satellite, which, like its companions, turned the same face always toward Saturn, was extremely dark, and showed very little surface detail. In complete contrast, the other was dominated by a brilliant white oval, about four hundred miles long and two hundred wide. At the moment, only part of this striking formation was in daylight, but the reason for Iapetus’s extraordinary variations in brilliance was now quite obvious …. <snip>
Arthur C. Clarke

This site is about Iapetus in one man's thoughts. A room with A VIEW: http://www.enterprisemission.com/moon1.htm

edit to add: http://all-that-is-interesting.com/important-image-captured-by-hubble

tridim

(45,358 posts)

6. The wacky giant hexagon is still there.

Reply to n2doc (Original post)

Fri Oct 18, 2013, 08:36 AM

Oct 2013

And still unexplained.

Beautiful pic!

Victor_c3

(3,557 posts)

7. I love pictures like this

Reply to n2doc (Original post)

Fri Oct 18, 2013, 08:54 AM

Oct 2013

They don't even look real to me. But, then again, it's not like I have any better idea what they are supposed to look like...

IrishAyes

(6,151 posts)

10. They look too perfect to be real, even though they are.

Reply to Victor_c3 (Reply #7)

Fri Oct 18, 2013, 11:46 PM

Oct 2013

ffr

(22,670 posts)

8. These worlds we know so little about.

Reply to n2doc (Original post)

Fri Oct 18, 2013, 05:39 PM

Oct 2013

Very cool!

Aldo Leopold

(685 posts)

9. Fuckin awesome.

Reply to n2doc (Original post)

Fri Oct 18, 2013, 06:28 PM

Oct 2013

Thanks, bro!

rocktivity

(44,576 posts)

11. And now for something completely different

Reply to n2doc (Original post)

Sat Oct 19, 2013, 01:09 AM

Oct 2013

rocktivity

Bucky

(54,026 posts)

12. meh

Reply to n2doc (Original post)

Sat Oct 19, 2013, 05:52 PM

Oct 2013

It's only a planet

JohnnyRingo

(18,636 posts)

13. Isn't this incredible?

Reply to n2doc (Original post)

Tue Oct 22, 2013, 11:53 AM

Oct 2013

It's one of those images that make me glad I lived long enough to see it. I caught it a couple nights ago on "Astronomy Picture of the Day":

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

I sure missed that site during the shutdown.

Cassini has been sending back some incredible images for at least a year now, but this one takes the prize! Thanx for posting.

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