Saturn: the "Ringed Beauty" and His Moons
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Dione-PIA07637.jpgDione: over the clouds of Saturn54 visiteOriginal caption:"Cassini prepared for its rendezvous with Dione on Oct. 11, 2005, capturing the brilliant, cratered iceball in front of its shadow-draped planet. The terrain seen here becomes notably darker toward the West, and is crosscut by the bright, fresh canyons that form wispy markings on Dione's Trailing Hemisphere.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini wide-angle camera at a distance of approx. 24.500 Km (about 15.200 miles) from Dione and at a phase angle of 22°. The image scale is about 2 Km (about 1 mile) per pixel".
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Dione-PIA07638.jpgDione: Carthage Linea61 visiteDione's icy surface is scarred by craters and sliced up by multiple generations of geologically-young bright fractures. Numerous fine, roughly-parallel linear grooves run across the terrain in the upper left corner. Most of the craters seen here have bright walls and dark deposits of material on their floors. As on other Saturnian moons, rockslides on Dione may reveal cleaner ice, while the darker materials accumulate in areas of lower topography and lower slope (e.g. crater floors and the bases of scarps).
The terrain seen here is centered at 15,4° North Latitude, 330,3° West Longitude, in a Region called Carthage Linea. North on Dione is up and rotated 50° to the left.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini narrow-angle camera on Oct. 11, 2005, at a distance of approx. 19.600 Km (roughly 12.200 miles) from Dione. The image scale is about 230 mt (760 feet) per pixel".
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Dione-PIA07658.jpgCutting Dione...70 visiteDione is partly occulted by Saturn's Rings in this nearly edge-on view, taken from less than 1/10th of 1° above the Ring-Plane. The side of the Rings nearer to the Cassini spacecraft was masked by Saturn's shadow at the time and appears dark.
Bright, wispy fractures on Dione's trailing Hemisphere curl around the horizon. Sunlit terrain seen on Dione is on the moon's Saturn-facing Hemisphere.
North is up.
The image was taken in infrared light (centered at 752 nanometers) with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 3, 2005 at a distance of approximately 2.5 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 109 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 15 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel.
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Dione-PIA07668.jpgIcy cliffs in the Sun...53 visiteAfter journeying a bit more than an hour across the Solar System, bright Sunlight reflects off the gleaming icy cliffs in the wispy terrain of Dione and is captured by the Cassini spacecraft's cameras several light seconds later.
Saturn's Ring-Plane is here tilted slightly toward the Cassini spacecraft and is bisected by the Planet's dark shadow stretching across the Rings.
This view looks toward the Saturn-facing Hemisphere on Dione.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 3, 2005, at a distance of approx. 2,8 MKM (about 1,7 MMs) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 104°. Resolution in the original image was roughly 17 Km (such as about 11 miles) per pixel on Dione. The image has been magnified by a factor of two and contrast-enhanced to aid visibility".
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Dione-PIA07690.jpgDione's faulted surface (HR)54 visiteCaption originale"This view highlights tectonic faults and craters on Dione, an icy world that has undoubtedly experienced geologic activity since its formation.
This view looks toward the Leading Hemisphere on Dione (which is about 1.126 Km - or 700 miles - across). North is up and rotated 20° to the right.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 24, 2005 at a distance of approximately 151.000 Km (roughly 94.000 miles) from Dione and at a phase angle of 99°. Image scale is approx. 896 mt (about 2.940 feet) per pixel".
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Dione-PIA07691.jpgDione's faulted surface (HR - enhanced colors)53 visiteCaption originale:"(...) To create this enhanced-color view, ultraviolet, green and infrared images were combined into a single black and white picture that isolates and maps regional color differences. This "color map" was then superposed over a clear-filter image.
The origin of the color differences is not yet understood, but may be caused by subtle differences in the surface composition or the sizes of grains making up the icy soil.
Even this view looks toward the Leading Hemisphere on Dione. North is up and rotated 20° to the right.
All the images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 24, 2005 at a distance of approximately 151.000 Km(about 94.000 miles) from Dione and at a phase angle of 99°.
Image scale is approx. 896 mt (about 2.940 feet) per pixel".
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Dione-PIA07692.jpgClosing-up on Dione53 visiteCaption originale:"This close-up of Dione's icy surface shows deeply shadowed craters near the Terminator, as well as a group of roughly linear faults above center.
The terrain shown here is on the moon's Leading Hemisphere. North on Dione is up and tilted 21° to the right.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 24, 2005 at a distance of approximately 152.000 Km (about 94.000 miles) from Dione and at a phase angle of 109°. Resolution in the original image was about 904 mt (roughly 2.965 feet) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two and contrast-enhanced to aid visibility".
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Dione-PIA07744.jpgDione and Saturn (natural colors)84 visiteOriginal caption:"Speeding toward pale, icy Dione, Cassini's view is enriched by the tranquil gold and blue hues of Saturn in the distance. The horizontal stripes near the bottom of the image are Saturn's Rings. The spacecraft was nearly in the plane of the Rings when the images were taken, thinning them by perspective and masking their awesome scale. The thin, curving shadows of the C-Ring and part of the B-Ring adorn the Northern Latitudes visible here, a reminder of the Rings' grandeur.
It is notable that Dione, like most of the other icy Saturnian satellites, looks no different in natural color than in monochrome images. Images taken on Oct. 11, 2005, with blue, green and infrared (centered at 752 nnmts) spectral filters were used to create this color view, which approximates the scene as it would appear to the human eye. The images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of approx. 39.000 Km from Dione and at a phase angle of 22°.
The image scale is about 2 Km/pixel".
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Dione-PIA07745-1.jpgDione's horizon - HD (1)53 visiteOriginal caption:"As it departed its encounter with Saturn's moon Dione, Cassini sailed above an unreal landscape blasted by impacts. The rising Sun throws craters into sharp contrast and reveals steep crater walls.
At the far right, a medium-sized crater is bisected by a fracture, revealing a cross section of the impact site.
The seven clear-filter images in this mosaic were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 11, 2005, at distances ranging from of 21.650 to 25.580 Km (about 13.450 to 15.890 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 154°. Resolution in the original images ranges from 126 to 154 mt (about 413 to 505 feet) per pixel. The images have been re-sized to have an image scale of about 100 mt (330 feet) per pixel. North on Dione is 140° to the left".
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Dione-PIA07745-2.jpgDione's horizon - HD (2)79 visitenessun commento
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Dione-PIA07745-3.jpgDione's horizon - HD (3)79 visitenessun commento
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Dione-PIA07745-4.jpgDione's horizon - HD (4)53 visitenessun commento
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