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NASA's Cassini Spacecraft Obtains Best Views of Saturn Hexagon (Videos)(Awesome Is Inadequate)
JPL NASA ^ | December 4, 2013 | Staff

Posted on 02/06/2014 3:56:45 PM PST by lbryce


This colorful view from NASA's Cassini mission is the highest-resolution view of the unique six-sided jet stream at Saturn's north pole known as "the hexagon." This movie, made from images obtained by Cassini's imaging cameras, is the first to show the hexagon in color filters, and the first movie to show a complete view from the north pole down to about 70 degrees north latitude. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Hampton University

This colorful view from NASA's Cassini mission is the highest-resolution view of the unique six-sided jet stream at Saturn's north pole known as "the hexagon." This movie, made from images obtained by Cassini's imaging cameras, is the first to show the hexagon in color filters, and the first movie to show a complete view from the north pole down to about 70 degrees north latitude.

Scientists can see the motion of a wide variety of cloud structures that reside within the hexagon in this movie. There is a massive hurricane tightly centered on the north pole, with an eye about 50 times larger than the average hurricane eye on Earth. (More information about that Saturn hurricane is at PIA14947.) Numerous small vortices are also present, which appear as reddish ovals. Some of these vortices spin clockwise while the hexagon and hurricane spin counterclockwise. Some of those smaller features are swept along with the jet stream of the hexagon, as if on a racetrack. The biggest of these vortices, seen near the lower right corner of the hexagon and appearing whitish, spans about 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers), approximately twice the size of the largest hurricane on Earth.

The differences in this version of the movie, in which different wavelengths of light from ultraviolet to visible to infrared have been assigned colors, show a distinct contrast between the types of atmospheric particles inside and outside the hexagon. Inside the hexagon there are fewer large haze particles and a concentration of small haze particles, while outside the hexagon, the opposite is true. The jet stream that makes up the hexagon seems to act like a barrier, which results in something like the "ozone hole" in the Antarctic.

This movie shows a view from directly over the north pole, keeping up with the rotation of the planet so that all the motion seen on the screen is the motion of the hexagonal jet stream or the storms inside of it, without any added motion from the spinning of the planet itself. The original images were re-projected to show this polar view.

High-resolution views of the hexagon have only recently become possible because of the changing of the seasons at Saturn and changes in the Cassini spacecraft's orbit. The north pole was dark when Cassini first arrived in July 2004. The sun really only began to illuminate the entire interior of the hexagon in August 2009, with the start of northern spring. In late 2012, Cassini began making swings over Saturn's poles, giving it better views of the hexagon.

The eight frames of the movie were captured over 10 hours on Dec.10, 2012. Each of the eight frames consists of 16 map-projected images (four per color filter, and four filters per frame) so the movie combines data from 128 images total.

In this color scheme, scientists assigned red to the 0.750-micron part of the light spectrum (near infrared). This part of the spectrum penetrates the high-altitude haze layer to sense the top of tropospheric cloud deck. They assigned green to the 0.727-micron part of the light spectrum that senses the upper tropospheric haze (a near-infrared wavelength corresponding to a methane absorption band). They assigned blue to the sum of blue and ultraviolet broadband filters -- combined, this blue channel covers between 0.400 and 0.500 microns (covering very near ultraviolet to blue in visible light). This part of the spectrum is sensitive to small aerosols.

To human eyes, the hexagon and north pole would appear in tones of gold and blue. See PIA14945 for a still image of the area in natural color.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. 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 and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: hexagon; saturn
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To: lbryce; brytlea; cripplecreek; decimon; bigheadfred; KoRn; Grammy; married21; steelyourfaith; ...

Thanks lbryce, extra to APoD.


21 posted on 02/06/2014 5:54:08 PM PST by SunkenCiv (http://www.freerepublic.com/~mestamachine/)
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To: lbryce
unique six-sided jet stream at Saturn's north pole..
a massive hurricane tightly centered on the north pole, with an eye about 50 times larger than the average hurricane eye on Earth...
Numerous small vortices are also present...
The biggest of these vortices... spans about 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers), approximately twice the size of the largest hurricane on Earth.

So... This is a REAL Polar Vortex then?

It is because of GlowBull Warming?

22 posted on 02/06/2014 5:58:07 PM PST by NoCmpromiz (John 14:6 is a non-pluralistic comment.)
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To: lbryce

Very pretty.
Beautiful, in fact.


23 posted on 02/06/2014 6:01:40 PM PST by onyx (Please Support Free Republic - Donate Monthly! If you want on Sarah Palin's Ping List, Let Me know!)
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To: onyx

Not as pretty as Ur...., oh, never mind. Just four letters away from being Zotted into the furthest regions of the infinite multiverse. .....


24 posted on 02/06/2014 6:11:07 PM PST by lbryce (Obama:The Worst is Yet To Come)
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To: lbryce

From this I can conclusively conclude there are no surviving trailer parks on Saturn.


25 posted on 02/06/2014 6:40:27 PM PST by NonValueAdded (It's not the penalty, it's the lack of coverage on 1 Jan. Think about it.)
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To: NonValueAdded
Yes, they had to tear some of the trailer parks to make room for a larger interstellar transportation system; the old one in the center was a bit outdated and of limited functionality. Gotta love them Dwellers ... see: “The Alchemist” by Iain M Banks for further details.
26 posted on 02/07/2014 1:43:19 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: WhoisAlanGreenspan?
It certainly nukes the idea that earth is not unique. I think the most unexamined planet is Mercury, which some see a a viable object of Colonization of Mercury - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
27 posted on 02/07/2014 5:18:04 AM PST by daniel1212 (Come to the Lord Jesus as a contrite damned+destitute sinner, trust Him to save you, then live 4 Him)
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To: lbryce
That's truly mesmerizing .. thanks for posting it !

Kinda like my old Spirograph, only way cooler !


d:^) as in -280°F waaaaaay cooler  

28 posted on 02/07/2014 5:27:43 AM PST by tomkat
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To: 21twelve

Thanks for the clarification..


29 posted on 02/07/2014 6:09:52 AM PST by Las Vegas Dave (The democRATic party preys on the ignorant..!)
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