Posted on 12/21/2016 9:23:37 PM PST by BenLurkin
Pandora is one of Saturn’s many baby moons, far too runty to form a sphere under its own gravity. Instead, this 52-mile across space rock looks more like a fossilized glob of silly putty in closest image ever captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.
Cassini is currently circling Saturn’s poles and skirting just outside the gas giant’s F-ring, in a series of dramatic “ring-grazing” orbits that NASA promised would give us an unprecedented look at some of Saturn’s smallest moons. And the spacecraft is already delivering on that promise. The image above was captured on December 18th, from a distance of just 25,200 miles (40,500 kilometers) from the moon Pandora. At resolution of approximately 787 feet (240 meters) per pixel, Pandora’s scars and craters come alive.
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...
52 miles diameter? Cool. Looks like it’s. had a rough life. It’s amazing we have the Science and technology to see this.
Anyone been watching NatGeo’s Mars docudrama? I’ve really enjoyed it. Very well done. I sure hope to see manned space exploration again in my lifetime. But they need to get moving!
Muzzie outreach is too important. We will see what happens now. Obozo killing the return to the moon effort spurred me to say to hell with the merry-go-round of contract to contract work and retire.........ain't going back now.
Did NASA say how much photoshopping was done this time?
O Brave new world!
... I think that all the time.
That's what global warming is going to do to Earth LOL.
Until they can consistently land a golf cart safely, I wouldn’t want to put people up there (mars).
Pandora looks more like a slightly oversized asteroid instead of a moon. Or maybe a comet that hasn’t flared, yet.
If we can land a golf cart on Mars I suggest that B O go with it.
Looks a lot like the last baked potato I had...
Pass the butter...
Docudrama, Shmockudrama!
Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon 109 hours and 42 minutes after launch “according to sources”.
Mars Curiosity took about 60 times that long to get to Mars. That’s “two orders of magnitude” in the parlance, and it’s uncharted territory, short of just doing it. Well, they have kept people in LEO on the space station for that time, but they aren’t really worth much after that. Well, that’s in earth gravity. OK, but still ...
I would hope to see “manned space exploration again in my lifetime” on the moon. Build a base. Something. Whatever you could cook up would make more sense than trying to go to Mars.
To amplify, look at all those images from Curiosity. Detail upon detail, for several years now. Plus drilling and sampling. What are you going to get beyond that with human presence? At 100? 1000? times the cost. Makes no sense.
... and I would ask you, are you familiar with the Curiosity image gallery? Do you care enough to look? Just asking.
Looks like a used bar of soap...
“Pandora looks more like a slightly oversized asteroid instead of a moon. Or maybe a comet that hasn’t flared, yet.”
I’m inclined to agree with you. *They* decided to reclassify Pluto from a planet to something of lesser significance (dwarf I think); likewise, it seems to me that to regard Pandora as a moon would be a stretch.
Great series! I don't think I will be here to see the first mission launched, but I was talking with my fourteen year old grand daughter and told her that she or her children will probably see a Mars settlement in their lifetime.
Yes. It was well-done.
ML/NJ
“.. and I would ask you, are you familiar with the Curiosity image gallery? Do you care enough to look? Just asking.”
No need to be snippy.
Curiousity’s journey and the data coming back to us is fantastic. If dreamers like the gang at SpaceX accomplish thier goals, we can still hope to become space pioneers, exploring uncharted territory. It is the ultimate adventure.
Why can’t there be projects like Curiosity and as well as the dream to go to Mars or elsewhere?
Review please...
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