Posted on 05/15/2014 9:34:26 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Cruising through the outer solar system, the Voyager 2 spacecraft made its closest approach to Neptune on August 25, 1989, the only spacecraft to visit the most distant gas giant. Based on the images recorded during its close encounter and in the following days, this inspired composited scene covers the dim outer planet, largest moon Triton, and faint system of rings. From just beyond Neptune's orbit, the interplanetary perspective looks back toward the Sun, capturing the planet and Triton as thin sunlit crescents. Cirrus clouds and a dark band circle Neptune's south polar region, with a cloudy vortex above the pole itself. Parts of the very faint ring system along with the three bright ring arcs were first imaged by Voyager during the fly-by, though the faintest segments are modeled in this composited picture. Spanning 7.5 degrees, the background starfield is composed from sky survey data centered on the constellation Camelopardalis, corresponding to the outbound Voyager's view of the magnificent Neptunian system.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Composite Image Credit & Copyright: Assembly/Processing - Rolf Olsen, Data - Voyager 2, NASA Planetary Data System]
Someday we will have hotel space stations around the various planets with these great views. Hopefully no radiation cause that would be bad. You would get a discount rate though if there was radiation.
Ah, but the entrepreneur wouldn’t have to spend the money to put a microwave in every state room.
Incredible
I heard there’s a move to re-name “Uranus” to “Obama.”
Amazing!
That is one spectacular picture, and all done up in my favorite color, too. ;-)
I thought NASA had a satellite visiting every planet, but the website indicates nothing going to Neptune in the future. Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited.
And the term of the month is .....
New Horizons is on its way to Pluto, Cassini is at Saturn, and Juno is on its way to Jupiter. We have nothing in the pipeline for Uranus and Neptune, and until we ramp up our plutonium production, we can’t go. Solar power is barely viable at Jupiter.
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