Saturn: the "Ringed Beauty" and His Moons
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The_Rings-PIA10408.jpg"Spiral Density Wave" in the B-Ring (MULTISPECTRUM; credits: Lunexit)80 visiteCaption NASA:"This High-Resolution view shows, at left, a Spiral Density Wave (SDW) in Saturn's inner B-Ring. A SDW is a spiral-shaped massing of particles that tightly winds many times around the Planet. These waves decrease in wavelength with increasing distance from the Planet.
Scientists use images like this one to understand the mass of the Rings and the collisional dynamics of the Ring Particles.
The view looks toward the sunlit side of the Rings from about 50° below the Ring-Plane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini Spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 10, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approx. 279.000 Km (sich as about 173.000 miles) from Saturn.
Image scale is roughly 1 Km (0,6 mile) per pixel".MareKromium
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The_Rings-PIA10419.jpgOn the edge... (MULTISPECTRUM-2; credits: Lunexit)66 visiteCaption NASA:"This detailed look at Saturn's A-Ring captures Daphnis in the narrow Keeler Gap. The small moon creates complex wave patterns in the gap edges that Cassini scientists are working to understand. To the right of the Keeler Gap, the outer A-Ring edge is significantly brighter than the rest of the Ring.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the Rings, from about 32° above the Ring-Plane. Daphnis is about 8 Km (approx. 5 miles) wide.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini Spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 31, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approx. 1 MKM (about 629.000 miles) from Saturn.
Image scale is roughly 6 Km (about 4 miles) per pixel".MareKromium
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The_Rings-PIA10423.jpgSpooky Spokes! (MULTISPECTRUM; credits: Lunexit)55 visiteCaption NASA:"As they wheel about the Planet, Saturn's sunlit Rings often exhibit dark, radial markings called "spokes". Spokes are seen only in the broad B-Ring, and can also appear bright in certain viewing geometries.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the Rings from about 11° below the Ring-Plane.
Pandora (about 81 kilometers, or approx. 50 miles across) is a speck above the Rings at left. The Planet's shadow darkens the Ring-Plane at lower right.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini Spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 3, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approx. 1 MKM (about 636.000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-Spacecraft, or Phase, Angle of 19°.
Image scale is roughly 61 Km (approx. 38 miles) per pixel".MareKromium
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The_Rings-PIA10426.jpgThe C-Ring and the Upper Atmosphere of Saturn (MULTISPECTRUM-2; credits: Lunexit)55 visiteCaption NASA:"Saturn's C-Ring emerges from behind the Planet's hazy limb. This view looks toward the sunlit side of the Rings from about 15° below the Ring-Plane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini Spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 17, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approx. 937.000 Km (such as about 582.000 miles) from Saturn.
Image scale is roughly 5 Km (a little more than 3 miles) per pixel".MareKromium
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The_Rings-PIA10442.jpgModern Art? (natural colors; credits: Lunexit)55 visiteCaption NASA:"This bizarre scene shows the cloud-streaked limb of Saturn in front of the Planet's B-Ring. The Ring's image is warped near the limb by the diffuse gas in Saturn's Upper Atmosphere.
For additional examples of this effect, see PIA09810, PIA07521 and PIA06656.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the Rings, from about 31° below the Ring-Plane. North on Saturn is up.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 24, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 750 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approx. 657.000 Km (about 408,000 miles) from Saturn.
Image scale is roughly 4 Km (about 2,5 miles) per pixel".MareKromium
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The_Rings-PIA10446.jpgIn the Sunlight... (natural colors; credits: NASA)55 visiteCaption NASA:"Saturn's icy Rings shine in scattered sunlight in this view, which looks toward the unilluminated northern side of the Rings from about 15° above the Ring-Plane. The Sun currently illuminates the Rings from the South. Some of the sunlight not reflected from the Rings' southern face is scattered through the countless particles, setting the Rings aglow. The inner F-Ring shepherd moon Prometheus (86 Km, or about 53 miles across at its widest point) appears at lower left.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. Bright clumps of material in the narrow F-Ring moved in their orbits between each of the color exposures, creating a chromatic misalignment in several places that provides some sense of the continuous motion within the Ring System.
The images were obtained with the Spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 4, 2008 at a distance of approx. 1,2 MKM (about 770.000 miles) from Saturn. The Phase Angle was 28°.
Image scale is roughly 70 Km per pixel".MareKromium
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The_Rings-PIA10454.jpgOut of the Darkness (natural colors; credits: NASA)58 visiteCaption NASA:"Saturn's rings burst out of shadow and curve gracefully around the Planet.
Prometheus (86 Km, or 53 about miles across at its widest point) appears as a bright speck touching the inside of the narrow F-Ring. Atlas (30 Km, or approx. 19 miles across at its widest point) is also visible, faintly, upward and to the left of Prometheus, just outside the A-Ring edge. Saturn's shadow cuts across the Rings at top right.
Several dark, narrow spokes are faintly visible near the B-Ring ansa, left of center.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the Rings from about 13° above the Ring-Plane. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were obtained with the Cassini Spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 4, 2008 at a distance of approx. 1,2 MKM (about 775.000 miles) from Saturn.
Image scale is roughly 71 Km (about 44 miles) per pixel".MareKromium
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The_Rings-PIA10470.jpgGravitational Interactions or just Evidence of a recent Collision?56 visiteCaption NASA:"The three bright, finger-like jets of material seen here suggest that a small object has collided with the core of Saturn's F-Ring. Cassini Spacecraft imaging scientists have shown that the F-Ring shepherd moon Prometheus influences the structure of the Ring in 2 ways: 1) by creating streamer-channel features as it closely approaches (and partially passes into) the Ring (see PIA08397) and 2) by perturbing the orbits of small objects within the F-Ring Region which then exert their own influence on nearby Ring particles, as seen here.
These small, embedded objects could be temporary clumps of particles, but scientists think at least one of the objects could be a more permanent moonlet.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the Rings from about 40° below the Ring-Plane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini Spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 20, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approx. 685.000 Km (such as about 426.000 miles) from Saturn and at a Phase Angle of 40°.
The image scale is about 5 Km per pixel".MareKromium
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The_Rings-PIA10518.jpgJust like a "Ribbon"...55 visiteCaption NASA:"The ever-changing F-Ring appears as wisps of smoke in this image taken downstream of the Shepherd Moon, Prometheus.
The image was taken in Visible Light with the Cassini Spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 23, 2008 at a distance of approx. 437.000 Km (about 272.000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-Spacecraft Angle of 89°.
Image scale is roughly 2 Km (a little more than 1 mile) per pixel".
Nota Lunexit: un sincero Grazie alla NASA per aver pubblicato questa immagine la quale risolve - diremmo in via definitiva - il dubbio che era nato a proposito del possibile fenomeno di distorsione ottica imputabile ad un campo gravitazionale (e/o magnetico) di grande portata ed estremamente vicino a Cassini.MareKromium
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The_Rings-PIA10524.jpgFaint Ring Arcs in the G-Ring (possible True Colors; credits: Lunar Explorer Italia)98 visiteCaption NASA:"This low elevation image shows the G-Ring Arc recently discovered by Cassini. This faint arc of material is maintained by a gravitational interaction with the moon Mimas.
The image was taken in Visible Light with the Cassini Spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 20, 2008 at a distance of approx. 1,2 MKM (about 736.000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-Spacecraft angle of 23°. Image scale is roughly 7 Km (such as about 4 miles) per pixel".
Nota Lunexit: il chiarore che si percepisce sulla Sx del frame è un effetto dovuto alla luce intensa che proviene da Saturno stesso (per riprendere con simile dettaglio il debole Anello "G", infatti, l'obiettivo di Cassini è - molto probabilmente - stato tenuto aperto per un tempo superiore ai 10 secondi, così leggermente sovraesponendo il frame sul suo lato più prossimo a Saturno; un altro elemento che ci permette di dire che la "posa" è stata pari o superiore alla decina di secondi la potete trovare nelle numerose "star-trails", che costellano il cielo intorno all'Anello "G").MareKromium
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The_Rings-PIA10525.jpgSpokes in the "B-Ring" (possible True Colors; credits: Lunar Explorer Italia)64 visiteCaption NASA:"Broad, dark spokes in the B-Ring are clearly seen in this image of Saturn's Rings. The spokes are finally becoming quite common, as they were during the Voyager flybys. These observations and others like it seem to support the idea that the spokes become most prominent near the Saturnian Equinox. Also visible in this image is the moon Janus off beyond the Rings.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini Spacecraft wide-angle camera on Oct. 19, 2008 at a distance of approx. 1,1 MKM (such as about 628.000 miles) from Saturn and at a Phase Angle of 29°.
Image scale is roughly 57 Km (about 35 miles) per pixel".MareKromium
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The_Rings-PIA10529.jpgThe "Good Shepherds"87 visiteCaption NASA:"The moons Pan and Daphnis cruise through the Encke and Keeler gaps, respectively.
The edge waves used to discover Daphnis can be seen here as the brightening on either side of the moon. And although the edge waves Pan raises in the Encke Gap are not visible here, the wakes caused by Pan's disturbance of the Rings are clearly visible.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini Spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 20, 2008 at a distance of approx. 1,2 MKM (such as about 742.000 miles) from Pan and at a Sun-Pan-Spacecraft, or Phase, Angle of 29°.
Image scale is roughly 7 Km (about 4 miles) per pixel".MareKromium
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