NASA/J.P.L.The Cassini spacecraft has provided new looks at Saturn and its rings of ice.
Posted on 07/04/2005 9:44:14 PM PDT by neverdem
NASA/J.P.L.
The Cassini spacecraft has provided new looks at Saturn and its rings of ice.
Of all the planets in the Sun's family, the most spectacular seen from afar is Saturn, a sphere of ethereal pastels encircled by shimmering rings of ice. Even up close and under repeated scrutiny by the Cassini spacecraft for a full year now, Saturn does not disappoint. The new familiarity becomes the ringed planet and its host of outlying moons of all sizes and aspects, and excites the mission's attending scientists.
"The mission is going fabulously well, everything we had hoped for and more," said Dr. Carolyn C. Porco of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo., the leader of the Cassini imaging team.
The first spacecraft to orbit Saturn, Cassini arrived there a year ago, on June 30, with plans for at least a four-year tour of the Saturnian environs. Scientists are already talking up the benefits of an extended mission, if the craft remains healthy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will foot the bill.
In the first year alone, Cassini threaded the rings for the closest observations ever of the spreading disk of glistening water ice and recently climbed into a higher orbit looking down on the rings. From there the spacecraft sent radio signals penetrating the ring system for the most detailed look ever at the size, distribution and density of the icy material. Several similar observations will be made over the summer.
Other instruments detected lightning and swirling storms on Saturn itself, and auroras at both poles. They picked up signals from a new radiation belt in a surprising place, between the inner edge of the rings and atmosphere of Saturn, the solar system's second largest planet. They discovered a four-mile-wide moon - scientists call it a moonlet...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Ooooooohhhh.....ahhhhhhhhhh......
Waiting to hear from the luddites. Gotta be one around here somewhere.
LOL!
Enceladus below: There are 13 pages of images at the Cassini site..
Thanks for the link.
I love the #2 on the image you have there. Like any human knows what earth looked like before earth began! It's interesting but what a joke people try to fool themselves into.
I didn't post this thread, I just posted a reply.
I know, but didn't you have that image in your post?
Oops, I just saw, meant for neverdem.
What a big lie this article is.
We've never even had a man on the moon.
/s
Cool!
I can only imagine what strange and beautiful languages the people from these worlds must speak.
GET A HORSE! ELECTRICITY IS THE DEVIL'S WORK! IF MAN WAS MEANT TO TRAVEL IN SPACE, HE'D LOOK LIKE THIS:
Probably Pig Latin.
ping
Bump for later read
Just Wow!
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