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| Immagini a caso - SOLAR SYSTEM |
Saturn-PIA09793.jpgThe Northern Hemisphere of Saturn (natural colors; credits: NASA/Space Science Inst.)81 visiteCaption NASA: "Dark ring shadows adorn the Northern Hemisphere of Saturn.
The shadows have loosened their grip on the North compared to when Cassini arrived in 2004, and presently continue to slide farther South.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 5° above the Ring-Plane. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this Natural Color View. The view was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Oct. 22, 2007, at a distance of approx. 1,3 MKM (such as about 839.000 miles) from Saturn.
Image scale is roughly 77 Km (about 48 miles) per pixel".MareKromium
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Atlas-N00084629.jpgAtlas (2)115 visitenessun commentoMareKromium
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AF-A new Streak in the Sky-N00015685.jpgA new "Big Streak" in the Sky of Saturn145 visiteImmagine ripresa dalla Sonda Cassini/Huygens il giorno 30 Agosto 2004 e ricevuta dal Mission Control il giorno successivo. C'é qualcosa che é passato (o sta passando...) accanto alla Sonda, mentre questa riprende un'immagine dello Spazio di Saturno.
E' un semplice riflesso?
Forse no.
Vi abbiamo proposto delle immagini che riprendono "riflessi" (o qualcosa di simile ad essi) e l'effetto che si vede è molto diverso.
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Mimas-N00041399.jpgMimas and Prometheus70 visiteN00041399.jpg was taken on October 13, 2005 and received on Earth October 14, 2005. The camera was pointing toward PROMETHEUS - distant approximately 769.213 Km away - and the image was taken using the CL1 and CL2 filters. This image has not been validated or calibrated.
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Mathilde-PIA02479.jpgMathilde118 visiteCaption NASA originale:"Two different views of asteroid 253 Mathilde were obtained by the NEAR spacecraft on June 27, 1997. The image at left was obtained as the spacecraft approached Mathilde with its camera pointed near the direction of the Sun; only a few of the prominent ridges on Mathilde are illuminated. The visible area at left is 29 Km (approx. 18 miles) high and the phase angle (the angle from Sun-Mathilde spacecraft) is 136. As the spacecraft receded from Mathilde, it observed the asteroid (about 60 Km - or 38 miles across) almost fully lit by the Sun at a phase angle of 43 (right image). Mathilde's irregular shape results from a long history of severe collisions with smaller asteroids. The largest visible crater is about 30 Km (19 miles) in diameter".
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Enceladus-N00055966.jpgThe "Fountain" of Enceladus (from 1,8 MKM!)75 visiteDel super-geyser di Encelado, se verificate andando a ritroso, sino a pochissimo tempo fa (giusto qualche mese) nessuno si era mai accorto nessuno, anche se di immagini ne erano già arrivate tante...Ora, come testimonia questo bel frame, la Fontana che sprizza cristalli d'acqua, polveri e fango si vede anche da considerevoli distanze.
Come mai?
Si tratta di una fotografia ottenuta in condizioni di particolare favore, oppure questo fenomeno, che si supponeva debole e transitorio, si sta invece rinforzando nel tempo, acquisendo dimensioni sempre più spettacolari?
E se così fosse, a che cosa dovremmo far risalire questa eruzione?
Encelado è un mondo geologicamente attivo?
La Luna di Neve e Ghiaccio - così Encelado è stato battezzato dalla NASA - si sta sciogliendo in maniera eclatante?
O forse, anche in questo caso, l'eruzione, era sfuggita al Voyager, negli Anni '80, solo perché, forse...non c'era! Essa è forse una conseguenza (almeno parziale) della rinvigorita attività solare degli ultimi anni?
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30-vg1_1636836.jpgIo and His volcanoes... (1)71 visitenessun commento
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Titan-Lakes-Unnamed_North_Polar_Lakes-02-PIA01942.jpgTitanian Northern Lakes (3)85 visiteCaption NASA originale:"Using its radar system, the Cassini spacecraft has imaged new lakes on Titan.
The large dark patch seen on this image, at high latitudes surrounding Titan's North Pole, is most likely a hydrocarbon lake. Several dark channels can be seen; the longest one at the left meanders over almost 100 Km (about 62 miles), and appears to drain into the lake. Some dark channels are remarkably straight, suggesting possible faulting in the subsurface. The bright landforms jutting into the lake indicate that old, eroded landforms may have flooded.
This radar image was acquired by the Cassini radar instrument in synthetic aperture mode on Oct. 9, 2006. The image is centered near 73 North Latitude and 343 West Longitude; it measures about 300 by 140 Km (such as about 190 by 90 miles). Smallest details in this image are about 500 mt (approx. 1.640 feet) across".
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| Ultimi arrivi - SOLAR SYSTEM |
Europa-Crater_and_Ridges.jpgPwyil Crater - Europa254 visiteThe large Jovian moon Europa may harbor liquid water beneath its frozen crust. Controversy surrounding this idea has been recently fueled by dramatic images of Europa's surface from the Galileo spacecraft.
This alluring color image was produced by combining low resolution color data with higher resolution mosaics recorded during three separate flybys and covers about 120 by 150 miles.
The eerie terrain of grooved linear ridges and crustal plates which seem to have broken apart and rafted into new positions could indicate subsurface water or slush. Blue tints represent relatively old ice surfaces while reddish regions may contain material from more recent internal geological activity.
White splotches are bright material blasted from the young impact crater Pwyll located about 600 miles south (to the right) of this area.
Many believe that large reservoirs of water hold out the tantalizing possibility of organisms living on this dim, distant world.MareKromiumAgo 19, 2026
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Uranus_and_clouds-ESA-Hubble~0.jpgUranus, from the HST251 visiteThe strongly inclined cloud-bands are well visible even here.
Studying Uranus "up close" is one of the next goals of space exploration. This is reiterated by Kathleen Mandt, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
According to a paper published in Science, she argues that NASA should send a probe exclusively to Uranus relatively quickly. Astronomers have indeed studied Mars extensively, both because of its close proximity to Earth and because it has a solid surface on which it is possible to land. However, Mandt believes this approach is flawed.
Although planets with very dense atmospheres are more difficult to study because they lack a surface on which rovers can walk, studying them is essential to understanding their characteristics. And, according to Mandt, we should also act quickly, given that the next "best launch window" would be 2032, when the alignment between Jupiter and Earth will allow a gravitational slingshot to the planet.MareKromiumAgo 18, 2026
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Uranus_clouds_and_rings.jpgUranus' Rings and clouds252 visiteLook carefully at the tilt of Uranus's rotation axis. It actually orbits the Sun, but, as some say, it does so by rolling on its axis.
What could have happened, hundreds of millions or billions of years ago, to shift Uranus's rotation axis this way? Many say: an impact.
Perhaps. But some traces should have remained and be still visible (it would have been an enormous scar). Perhaps the fragmented rings are a little evidence of such a catastrophe (arcs of broken rings that, perhaps, once formed a structure not as majestic as Saturn's, but at least complete)... But the truth is that nobody knows.MareKromiumAgo 18, 2026
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Sun_Flowers_NSO_1901.jpgFunny-looking Sun218 visiteIs that the Surface of the Sun? Yes it is, believe it or not...MareKromiumAgo 17, 2026
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Saturnian_Spokes.gifSpokes on Saturn's B-Ring (Image Credit & Copyright: Brad Croslin)191 visiteThis GIF-Movie features a nearly two-hour timelapse of Saturn and its rings looping forwards and backwards. If you look closely, a ghoulish shadow appears and disappears as Saturn’s B-Ring rotates.
Decades of observation with Voyager 2, Cassini, and Hubble show the appearance of Saturn’s spokes varies with the planet’s seasons. Like Earth, Saturn’s spin axis is tilted compared to the plane of its orbit around the Sun.
During Saturn’s Equinox, the rings are less tilted toward the Sun and they receive sunlight at a shallower angle. Saturn’s spokes may be electrically charged dust and ice temporarily levitated above the rings by electromagnetic forces.
It is still uncertain, but the ring plasma and charge environment may be influenced by changing ultraviolet illumination, meteoroid impacts, or indirect effects from interactions between the solar wind and the planet’s magnetic field.MareKromiumAgo 09, 2026
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Torifune_JAXA_1400.jpgDouble Asteroid "Torifune" (Credits: JAXA, U. of Tokyo, Chiba Tech, Tokyo U. of Science, AIST, Paris Obs., IAC)185 visiteWhy is this asteroid a double? Earlier this month the Japanese robotic spacecraft Hayabusa2 shot past asteroid 98943 Torifune and captured pictures. Although previous observations from distant Earth indicated that Torifune was oblong, Hayabusa2 found that Torifune actually has two joined lobes. With a length of about four soccer fields, this space rock frequently comes near the Earth as it orbits the Sun, although it is not a threat. Besides the two lobes, Torifune shows many large boulders, but, surprisingly, no obvious craters, likely because its surface is a pile of rubble. Like asteroid Arrokoth, it appears that each lobe formed separately before colliding and becoming stuck together. Hayabusa2 famously encountered asteroid Ryugu in 2018, and now heads for an encounter in 2031 with 1998 KY26, a smaller asteroid that rotates unusually fast and might have reservoirs of ice. Torifune translates literally to "bird boat" in Japanese. It primarily refers to Ame-no-torifune (Heavenly Bird Boat), a deity and his a deity and his magical vessel in Japanese mythology capable of traveling at high speeds with the steadiness of a rock.MareKromiumLug 15, 2026
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Pluto_from_above.pngPluto from above (Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Inst.)210 visiteA 50 mile (80 kilometer) trip across Pluto would cover the distance indicated by the scale bar in this startling image. The close-up of the icy world's rugged equatorial terrain was captured when the New Horizons spacecraft was about 47,800 miles (77,000 kilometers) from the surface, 1.5 hours before its closest approach. Rising to an estimated 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) the mountains are likely composed of water ice. Suggesting surprising geological activity, they are also likely young with an estimated age of 100 million years or so based on the apparent absence of craters. The region pictured is near the base of Pluto's broad, bright, heart-shaped feature.MareKromiumLug 02, 2026
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ZZ-Mercury-Gravity_MESSENGER_960.jpgGravitational Anomalies of Mercury (Image Credit: NASA, GSFC's SVS, JHU's APL, Carnegie Inst. Washington)210 visiteWhat's that under the surface of Mercury? The robotic MESSENGER spacecraft that had been orbiting planet Mercury for the past four years had been transmitting its data back to Earth with radio waves of very precise energy. The planet's gravity, however, slightly changed this energy when measured on Earth, which enabled the reconstruction of a gravity map of unprecedented precision. Here gravitational anomalies are shown in false-color, superposed on an image of the planet's cratered surface. Red hues indicate areas of slightly higher gravity, which in turn indicates areas that must have unusually dense matter under the surface. The central area is Caloris Basin, a huge impact feature measuring about 1,500 kilometers across. Last week, after completing its mission and running low on fuel, MESSENGER was purposely crashed onto Mercury's surface.MareKromiumLug 02, 2026
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