Posted on 09/07/2011 4:40:19 PM PDT by EveningStar
There have been some amazing photographs taken of Saturn over the years, but none quite like this.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
There was a thread on this this past week end as part of the APOD series. This pic is now my wall paper. Yes, that is earth to the left and the belt of Orion above it to the left.
According to another reader, when he used his astronomy software for that date, from that point, looking in that direction; Uranus and Mercury may be in the photo.
Picture looks like BS to me. Ask yourself, "Where is the Sun?"
ML/NJ
If it’s a product of the U.S. government, it is automatically in the public domain.
(c) NASA????
I thought all federally funded works are non-copyright
It was taken at night as the probe looked back at the eclipsed sun, the night side of Saturn is seen to be partly lit by light reflected from its own majestic ring system.
The rings themselves appear dark when silhouetted against Saturn, but quite bright when viewed away from Saturn, slightly scattering sunlight, in this exaggerated colour image.
Saturn’s rings light up so much that new rings were discovered, although they are hard to see in the image. Seen in spectacular detail, however, is Saturn’s E ring, the ring created by the newly discovered ice-fountains of the moon Enceladus and the outermost ring visible above.
...I think....
Cassini Images Bizarre Hexagon on Saturn
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2007-034
Saturn’s North Pole Hexagon Mystery Solved?
http://news.discovery.com/space/saturns-north-pole-hexagon-mystery-solved.html
Yahoo search results for “saturn” “hexagon”
http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=mcafee&p=saturn+hexagon
It’s behind Saturn. That was the reason for the setup of the photo: The scientists wanted the rings to be back-lit. They maneuvered Cassini to position the Sun directly behind. Does that help?
Blocked from view .. but lighting up the far side!?
Not unreasonable. Reflections produce backscatter from the rings, backlighting the planet. With the sun masked, contrast can be adjusted to pick up the otherwise lost lighting.
Beautiful!! Notice that you can put the Star of David inside the hexagon. Also - all snowflakes are six sided and looked like Stars of David.
Interesting thought. The universe...so incredible, so profound if you can see.
Well doing the math, Saturn is about 10x as bright as the Earth.
Each point of magnitude is 2.5x as bright as the previous level.
2.5 x 2.5 = 6.25 x 2.5 = 15x.
So the Earth from Saturn would appear to be about +2.5 magnitude as compared to Saturn from Earth. At it’s dimmest, Earth would be about 4th magnitude, at it’s brightest, close to 3rd magnitude.
Definitely visible with the naked eye.
The photos of Saturn and her rings look so clean and pure. I have read somewhere that if we could physically there in the vicinity of the planet and the rings the NOISE would be unbearable. The rings are made up of particles that range in size from sand grains to boulder-like objects larger that a large building. As these rings swirl in a large circular stream around the planet those objects are all banging and crashing into each other, making an unimaginable din! FWIW
I said, “Bring me a wench!”. :)
I was expecting to see a photograph of a compact car, but this is much better.
Noise without a transportation medium is a problem.
What is hotlink?
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