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27-Megapixel Saturn Panoramic Image Makes Perfect Widescreen Desktop Background
Gizmodo.com ^ | 12/31/09 | Jesus Diaz

Posted on 12/31/2009 10:47:10 AM PST by Reaganesque

No, I'm not obsessed with Saturn. OK, I am obsessed with Saturn. But so is Time, who picked this deliciously crispy photo as one of the images of the year, revealing ring bumps as high as the Rocky Mountains.

I'm not surprised, because it's a truly unique moment, one that happens at Saturn's equinox, which is an event that only happens twice in 10,179 Earth days. And this time, we had Cassini there to take this amazing photo, just when the sun illuminates the rings edge-on. As Carolyn Porco—Cassini imaging team leader—puts it:

The geometry revealed structures and phenomena in the rings we had never seen before. We saw this famous adornment spring from two dimensions into three, with some ring structures soaring as high as the Rocky Mountains. It made me feel blessed.

The team used Cassini during a week to take photos of vertical clumps in the ring, and when the equinox happened, they could measure their true size looking at the shadows. According to NASA's Bob Pappalardo at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

It's like putting on 3-D glasses and seeing the third dimension for the first time. This is among the most important events Cassini has shown us.

Well, Bob and Carolyn, Carolyn and Bob and the rest of the Cassini team, all I can say is thank you for an amazing work, and the stunning desktop backgrounds in 2009. [NASA Full Resolution Image]


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: equinox; image; itsfullofstars; panoramic; saturn
Click here for full resolution picture.

Absolutely stunning! Zoom in and you can see clouds and all sorts of colors in the atmosphere. Very cool!

1 posted on 12/31/2009 10:47:10 AM PST by Reaganesque
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To: Reaganesque

Might want to add a “graphic images” warning...

OK it’s not Helen Thomas, but your “time” link in the article showed the Wee-wee in chief, looking down his narcissistic nose as usual, like Benito Mussolini.

FReepers might want to avoid that link and go right to your bottom one. :)


2 posted on 12/31/2009 10:49:56 AM PST by Cringing Negativism Network (2012: Repeal it all... All of it!)
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To: Reaganesque

sounds cool.


3 posted on 12/31/2009 10:51:37 AM PST by GeronL (http://libertyfic.proboards,com)
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To: martin_fierro; dighton; Larry Lucido; Constitution Day; Lazamataz; Tijeras_Slim

Better to be obsessed with Saturn than Uranus.


4 posted on 12/31/2009 10:52:42 AM PST by Petronski (In Germany they came first for the Communists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist...)
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To: Reaganesque

Isn’t that beautiful!


5 posted on 12/31/2009 10:54:23 AM PST by WestwardHo (Whom the god would destroy, they first drive mad.)
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To: Reaganesque

Looks fake to me.


6 posted on 12/31/2009 11:38:31 AM PST by caver (Obama's first goals: allow more killing of innocents and allow the killers of innocents to go free.)
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To: Reaganesque; sig226; WestwardHo; caver; Petronski
From Sig226:

7 posted on 12/31/2009 12:51:51 PM PST by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

Is that God’s eye? If so, I’d say He looks pissed.


8 posted on 12/31/2009 3:29:36 PM PST by Jed Eckert
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To: Reaganesque

Someone sent me this video link in email. Interesting, hope you enjoy it:

If Earth Had Rings:

http://www.flixxy.com/earth-rings-3ds-max-animation.htm


9 posted on 12/31/2009 7:14:58 PM PST by Cedar
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To: BenLurkin

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Psalm19:1

I’m sure you’ve heard it before, that handiwork can be translated “fingerwork.” The fingerwork of God. Amazing.

Our mind and our understanding is so limited. I look at this picture and I think for all that God has done for us in making us, sending His Son, remaking us so we can know Him, and giving us the Bible so we can study Him, I look at this picture and realize we know so little about God. What is in the mind of God that He makes such beautiful things?
I hope this doesn’t sound evil, but we put God in a religeous box. There’s,obviously, a whole lot more to Him that we are not seeing. Ramblings of an old woman.


10 posted on 12/31/2009 8:07:44 PM PST by WestwardHo (Whom the god would destroy, they first drive mad.)
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To: Petronski; KevinDavis; annie laurie; garbageseeker; Knitting A Conundrum; Viking2002; ...
Heh heh...

Thanks Petronski. To the list -- not X-Planets per se, but I think you'll enjoy this.
 
X-Planets
· join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe ·
Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar ·

11 posted on 01/01/2010 12:48:31 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Happy New Year!)
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http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/388135main_PIA11667_full.jpg


12 posted on 01/01/2010 12:58:36 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Happy New Year!)
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