Artistic Views of the Solar System
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Enceladus-PIA07724.jpgEnceladus, Great Britain and Northern France124 visiteSaturn's moon Enceladus is only 505 Km (approx. 314 miles) across, small enough to fit within the length of the United Kingdom, as illustrated here. The intriguing icy moon also could fit comfortably within Arizona or Colorado.
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Enceladus~2.jpgEnceladian Geysers105 visiteDa "NASA - Picture of the Day" dell'8 Giugno 2006:"In this stunning Saturnian vista - one in a series of artist's visions of volcanos on alien worlds - icy geysers erupt along narrow fractures in inner moon Enceladus. The majestic plumes were actually discovered by instruments on the Cassini Spacecraft during close encounters with bright and shiny Enceladus last year. Researchers now suspect the plumes originate from near-surface pockets of liquid water with temperatures near 273 kelvins (0° Celsius) - hot when compared to the distant moon's surface temperature of 73 kelvins (- 200° C). A dramatic sign that tiny, 500km-diameter Enceladus is surprisingly active, these ice volcanos hold out another potential site in the search for water and origin of life beyond planet Earth.
Enceladus' ice volcanos also likely produce Saturn's faint but extended E-Ring".
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Flash-PIA02108.jpgFlash!!!106 visiteThis image shows a flash produced in a laboratory by a high-velocity bead slamming into dust. Though the flash itself can't be resolved, its brilliant effects can be seen in this three-second time exposure. Scientists say that the collision between Deep Impact's Impactor and comet Tempel 1 may produce a similar flash.
This flash occurred when a quarter-inch sphere smashed into powdered dust at a speed of 6,4 Km-per-second (about 4 miles-per-second).
Even though the actual flash lasted less than 50 millionths of a second, the camera recorded the hot debris in the impact crater (center) and the streaking ejecta.
This experiment was performed at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Ca.
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Gusev Crater.jpgGusev Crater: an artistic interpretation136 visite"...The landing site and the Columbia Hills are within Gusev Crater, a bowl about 150 Km (about 95 miles) in diameter. It was selected for the Spirit mission because the shape of the terrain suggests the crater once held a lake. Volcanic deposits appear to have covered any sign of ancient lakebed geology out on the plain, but scientists say the hills expose older layers that have been lifted and tipped by a meteorite impact or other event...".
"Spirit has climbed to the hilltop and looked over the other side, but NASA did not do this just to say we can do it. The Mars rovers are addressing fundamental questions about Martian history and planetary environments," said NASA's Mars Exploration Program Director Doug McCuistion.
The crest of "Husband Hill" offers Spirit's views of possible routes into a basin to the south with apparently layered outcrops. Shortly after Spirit landed, it observed a cluster of seven hills about 3 kilometers (2 miles) east of its landing site. NASA proposed naming the range "Columbia Hills" in tribute to the last crew of Space Shuttle Columbia. The tallest of the hills commemorates Rick Husband, Columbia's commander.
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Huygens to Titan-IMG001244-br500.jpgHuygens probe's going to Titan89 visiteAn artist's concept of the European Space Agency's Huygens Probe en route to Titan after release from the NASA Cassini orbiter.
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Hyperion - artistic vision.jpgHyperion's ice Crevasses165 visitenessun commento
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Japetus - artistic vision.jpgA Night on Japetus143 visiteGiapeto, la "luna a due facce" - una chiara ed una scura - in una visione di David Seal. Bellissima immagine, senza dubbi!
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Jupiter.jpgJupiter's Kingdom157 visiteForse non è Giove il pianeta a cui l'Artista (Lynette Cook) stava pensando mentre l'opera veniva realizzata, ma a noi è venuto in mente il Re degli Dei e quindi...
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Kuiper_s Belt.jpgRelationship of the Kuiper's Belt to the Oort's Cloud84 visiteThis illustration shows that the Kuiper Belt is shaped like a disk (see inset diagram) and resides within the shell-like structure of the Oort Cloud. Located on the outskirts of the Solar System, the Kuiper Belt is a "junkyard" of countless icy bodies left over from the Solar System's formation. The Oort Cloud is a vast shell of billions of comets.
The inset diagram compares Pluto's orbit with a Kuiper Belt binary object called 1998 WW31. The Kuiper Belt [the fuzzy disk] extends from inside Pluto's orbit to the edge of the Solar System.
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Landing on Mars.jpgLanding on Mars142 visiteA livello di curiosità Vi suggeriamo, se volete vedere una ricostruzione davvero molto credibile di un futuro "landing on Mars" (a base di paracadute prima ed airbags poi), la sequenza della discesa della capsula di emergenza con 5 astronauti a bordo che viene presentata nel discreto Sci-Fi Movie "Red Planet".
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Landing on Titan (2).jpgLanding on Titan (2)110 visiteThe Huygens probe descends through Titan's murky, brownish-orange atmosphere of nitrogen and carbon-based molecules, beaming its findings to the distant Cassini orbiter. The probe is equipped with a variety of scientific sensors to measure the physical properties of the moon's atmosphere; it also carries an imaging device to return pictures of Titan's possibly hydrocarbon-lake-dotted surface.
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Landing on Titan (3).jpgSaturn, through the fog of Titan117 visiteTitan's surface may hold lakes of liquid ethane and methane, sprinkled over a thin veneer of frozen methane and ammonia. Most of the brownish-orange color comes from more heavily processed hydrocarbons present in Titan's atmosphere and on its surface. Artistic license has been used to exaggerate the size of the orbiter, the sharpness of the icy features, the tilt of Saturn's rings, and the visibility of the planet through Titan's atmosphere.
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