Mimas, one of Saturn's moons.
Posted on 06/13/2004 8:33:37 AM PDT by kennedy
NASA's Cassini space probe confirmed Saturday that it had completed a flyby of Saturn's largest moon, Phoebe, coming within 1,285 miles of the small, dark body.
The craft's main antenna was pointing away from Earth during the flyby Friday afternoon. Engineers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., did not receive word of the craft's successful pass until 10:52 a.m. EDT Saturday, when the craft re-oriented itself and began transmitting pictures and data back to mission control.
Most of the data and pictures will be released today, but the early unprocessed images show that Phoebe is a badly pitted rock festooned with craters and large gashes.
"This is an extremely battered, old surface we're looking at," science team member Torrance Johnson said. "There are deep craters from other debris that over eons have pockmarked the surface. It's roughly round, but it's really chipped away."
Saturday's images reveal that the small moon, only 137 miles in diameter, is heavily cratered, with multiple impacts giving many of the craters a jagged, irregular appearance. Many of the craters are smaller than 0.6 miles in diameter, indicating they were produced by the impact of bodies smaller than 100 yards in diameter.
Some of the craters have lighter-colored rays extending outward, suggesting that the moon has a light-colored interior covered with a coat of darker material. Whether objects that caused the craters were cometary or asteroidal in origin or were caused by the debris from other impacts within the Saturn system is hotly debated.
Cassini made a variety of spectroscopic measurements of the moon that should reveal much about its composition and, hence, its origin. That data, along with pictures that are expected to have 10 times the resolution of Saturday's, will be released today.
Friday's flyby was Cassini's only encounter with Phoebe. On June 30, the craft will fire its retrorockets and enter orbit around Saturn, where it will spend four years studying the planet and its inner moons.
Ah, I see. The Austin American Statesman. Calling that liberal rag, "fishwrap" insults rotten fish.
Whew! Those are some bad lookin' rocks. Don't think I'd want to inhabit that place.
The problem is that the idiot reporters can't even copy simply facts from NASA correctly. The NASA statement describes Phoebe as the largest "outer" moon of Saturn. The dult reporter said, duh I don't know what that means so instead of researching it I'll just drop the word outer and look smart duh. If you are looking for scientific accuracy from places other than the source or a publication that does not at least have a focus in that area, then you are asking to get incorrect information.
Of course I didn't RTFA, but I'd send an email to the reporter and to the editor and give them an education. Make sure you talk down to them and inform them that you learned this in 3rd grade. Maybe that will kickstart what little spark of self respect they have.
I read that Arthur C Clarke described it almost exactly like this in one of his books years before they actually got a picture. He supposedly said he didn't know how he got it right, it just was a good description of a moon like this when he needed one in his book. The story may be apocraphyl, but I still like it.
New photo taken by Cassini--close up of Phoebe surface
you could have waited a few seconds longer before that screen grab!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
last time i posted something to crazy i got booted for 3 days i gotta be careful
You're right. See my post 34
Ahh! Now THAT'S more like it!
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