Saturn: the "Ringed Beauty" and His Moons
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SaturnSpaceN00115280-N00115290.gifThrough the "Eyes" of Cassini... (GIF-Movie; credits: Dr G. Barca)56 visiteSuggestivo, affascinante e, alla fine - semplicemente -, bello! (repetita iuvant)MareKromium
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SaturnStorm-PIA07788.jpgTurbulence... (1)54 visiteThis image shows a rare and powerful storm on the Night-Side of Saturn.
Light from Saturn's Rings (called "Ringshine") provided the illumination, allowing the storm and other cloud features to be seen.
The storm is a possible source of radio emissions believed to come from electrical discharges (lightning) deep in Saturn's atmosphere. Cassini began detecting the radio emissions, which are like those from lightning, on January 23, 2006. At about the same time, amateur astronomers reported that a storm had appeared in Saturn's Southern Hemisphere at Lat. - 35°. Cassini was in the wrong place to take good images of the storm on the day side, since the Planet showed only a thin crescent to the spacecraft, but night side imaging was possible using light from the Rings.
The image shows the storm as it appeared to the Cassini imaging system on January 27, 2006, and the storm's North-South dimension is about 3.500 Km (approx. 2.175 miles).
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SaturnStorm-PIA07789.jpgTurbulence... - detail mgnf (2)54 visiteNo lightning flashes are visible in the image (they would look like medium-sized bright spots, since the light would spread out before it reaches the cloud tops), but non-detection does not mean that lightnings are absent, however. Lightning might be too faint to stand out above background or too deep to be seen through the thick clouds. Bad luck is another possibility: the camera might have missed the strong flashes during the 10' that the shutter was open. A narrow-cloud band crosses the storm from left to right. It is illuminated by the Rings from the North and is brighter on that side. Cassini scientists are looking forward to an extensive Night Side image set, designed to look for lightning. That set will be collected during the first half of 2006.
The view was obtained in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at a distance of approx. 3,5 MKM (about 2,2 MMs) from Saturn. The image scale is approx. 20 Km (about 12 miles) per pixel.
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Saturn_Titan-PIA09856.jpgFather and Son (natural colors; credits: NASA)54 visiteCaption NASA:"The Cassini Spacecraft captured this color portrait of Saturn and Titan only a few minutes before the haze-enshrouded moon slipped behind the planet's enormous bulk. The view looks toward the sunlit side of the Rings from about 5° below the Ring-Plane.
The Northern Hemisphere of Titan presently appears darker than the Southern, a feature presumed to be a seasonal effect.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Jan. 29, 2008 at a distance of approx. 2,3 MKM (such as about 1,4 MMs) from Titan and approx. 1 MKM (about 630.000 miles) from Saturn.
Image scale is roughly 135 Km (about 84 miles) per pixel on Titan and approx. 61 Km (about 38 miles) per pixel on Saturn".MareKromium
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Saturn_and_Companions-EB-LXTT.jpgDeep Space... (Natural Colors; credits: Elisabetta Bonora - Lunexit Team)56 visitenessun commentoMareKromium
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Saturn_and_Friends-EB-MF-LXTT.jpgSaturn and some "Friends" (Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Elisabetta Bonora and Marco Faccin - Lunexit Team)162 visitenessun commentoMareKromium
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Saturn_and_Moons-N00173684_-83-82-MF-LXTT.jpgTrue Planets (Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Marco Faccin - Lunexit Team)176 visitenessun commentoMareKromium
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Saturn_s Clouds-HST-PIA01464_modest.jpgSaturn's Clouds from Hubble Space Telescope54 visiteCaption NASA originale:"This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the ringed planet Saturn shows a rare storm that appears as a white arrowhead-shaped feature near the planet's equator. The storm is generated by an upwelling of warmer air, similar to a terrestrial thunderhead. The east-west extent of this storm is equal to the diameter of the Earth (about 7,900 miles). Hubble provides new details about the effects of Saturn's prevailing winds on the storm. The new image shows that the storm's motion and size have changed little since its discovery in September, 1994".
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Saturn_s Clouds-V1&V2-PIA01375_modest.jpgSaturn's Clouds from Voyager 1 and Voyager 255 visiteCaption NASA originale:"This comparison shows Saturn’s north temperate region as viewed on Nov. 5, 1980, by Voyager 1 (left) and Aug. 21, 1980, by its sister craft, Voyager 2, from a range of 5.000.000 Km; the large bright oval feature in the lower right of each frame measures about 2.500 Km. The largest bright feature in the Voyager 1 photograph extends about 7.500 Km from north to south. These giant storms lie within one of the strongest westward-flowing currents observed in the atmosphere, with wind speeds of about 20 mt p/s".
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Saturn_s Clouds-V1-PIA00026_modest.jpgSaturn's Clouds from Voyager 156 visiteCaption NASA originale:"Two brown ovals, at right, some 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) across, were found at approximately 40` and 60` latitude in Saturn's northern hemisphere by Voyager l. The photo was taken on November 7, 1980, from a range of 7.500.000 Km. The polar oval (upper right) has a structure similar to the Saturn red spot located in the southern polar latitudes".
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Saturn_s Clouds-V1-PIA00027_modest.jpgSaturn's Clouds from Voyager 155 visitecaption NASA originale:"This image was obtained on November 10, 1980 when Voyager 1 was at a distance of 3,500,000 kilometers (2,200,000 miles) from Saturn. The smallest resolved features in this photograph are 65 kilometers (40 miles) in diameter. Images with similar resolution indicate that Saturn's circulation is somewhat different from Jupiter's. The maximum westward velocities seen on Saturn are located in the middle of the darker regions, while on Jupiter they are located at the poleward interface between belts and zones".
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Saturn_s Clouds-V2-PIA01379_modest.jpgSaturn's Clouds from Voyager 254 visiteCaption NASA originale:"A vortex, or large atmospheric storm, is visible at 74` north latitude in this color composite of Voyager 2 Saturn images obtained on Aug. 25, 1980, from a range of about 1.000.000 Km. This particular storm system seems to be one of the few large-scale structures in Saturn's polar region, which otherwise is dominated by much smaller-scale features suggesting convection. The darker, bluish structure (upper right) oriented east to west strongly suggests the presence of a jet stream at these high latitudes".
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