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| Piú viste - Saturn: the "Ringed Beauty" and His Moons |
Enceladus-N00146707_8.jpgTiger Stripes (Natural Colors; credits: Dr M. Faccin)83 visiteIn attesa che la NASA faccia di meglio (se non altro pubblicamente)...MareKromium
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Saturnian_Inner_Moons-PIA13423.jpgThe (enhanced) "True Colors" of the Saturninan Inner Moons83 visiteThis set of enhanced-color maps made from data obtained by NASA's Cassini Spacecraft show Saturn's moons Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione and Rhea. The global maps show the colorful splotches and bands on the icy moons' Surfaces that scientists believe came from bombardments large and small.
Icy material sprayed by Enceladus, which makes up the misty E-Ring around Saturn, appears to leave a brighter, blue signature.
The pattern of bluish material on Enceladus, for example, indicates that the moon is covered by the fallback of its own "breath". Enceladean spray also appears to splatter the parts of Tethys, Dione and Rhea that run into the spray head-on in their orbits around Saturn. But scientists are still puzzling over the reason why the Enceladean Frost on the Leading Hemisphere of these moons bears a coral-colored, rather than bluish, tint.
On Tethys, Dione and Rhea, darker, rust-colored reddish hues paint the entire Trailing Hemisphere, or the side that faces backward in the orbit around Saturn. The reddish hues are thought to be caused by tiny particle strikes from circulating Plasma, a gas-like state of matter so hot that atoms split into an ion and an electron, in Saturn's magnetic environment. Tiny, iron-rich "nanoparticles" may also be involved, based on earlier analyses by the Cassini Visual and InfraRed Mapping Spectrometer Team.
Mimas is touched by the tint of Enceladean spray, but it appears on the trailing side of Mimas. This probably occurs because it orbits inside the path of Enceladus, or closer to Saturn, than Tethys, Dione and Rhea.
Mimas and Tethys also sport a dark, bluish band.
The bands match patterns one might expect if their Surface were being irradiated by high-energy electrons that drift in a direction opposite to the flow of Plasma in the magnetic bubble around Saturn. Scientists are still figuring out exactly what is happening on Mimas, but the electrons appear to be zapping the Surface in a way that matches the Pac-Man pattern detected by Cassini's Composite InfraRed Spectrometer.
On Rhea, a unique chain of bluish splotches appears where fresh, bluish ice has been exposed on older crater rims. Cassini imaging scientists recently reported that they did not see evidence in Cassini images of a ring around Rhea. However, scientists analyzing these new enhanced-color maps suggest the crash of orbiting material, perhaps a ring, to the surface of Rhea in the not too distant past, could explain the bluish splotches.
These new maps were made by processing raw images obtained by Cassini's imaging cameras from 2004 to 2009. Scientists analyzed frames shot through Visible-Light, UltraViolet and InfraRed filters. The processing enhanced our views of these moons beyond what could be seen by the human eye.
The maps are in a simple cylindrical projection from 90° South Latitude (bottom) to 90° North Latitude (top). From left to right, they cover 360° to - 2° West Longitude. The Leading Hemisphere appears on the right side of each map and Trailing Hemisphere appears on the left.MareKromium
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PHOEBE-PIA06064_modest.jpgPhoebe from Cassini-Huygens82 visiteUn'immagine spettacolare che ci mostra questa Luna martoriata da impatti occorsi - forse - milioni o miliardi di anni fa. La sua forma vagamente ovoidale, unita alle sue caratteristiche superficiali, fanno assomigliare questa Luna Maggiore - secondo noi - a Phobos. La grande depressione che vedete sulla parte superiore di Phoebe, infine, ci ricorda proprio lo "Stickney Crater" di Phobos
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AD-The Sky of Saturn before the 3rd Streak-N00014481.jpgSaturn's Sky just before the 3rd "Streak" - N0001448182 visiteDoveva essere solo questione di tempo, e così è stato. Il giorno 17 Agosto 2004 la Sonda Cassini/Huygens ci invia nuove immagini delle "meraviglie" di Saturno e con esse e fra esse, ancora una volta, abbiamo trovato un frame che raffigura una stranissima "anomalia". Come di regola, Vi offriamo l'immagine immediatamente precedente l'Anomalia, l'Anomalia e l'immagine successiva: poi, giudicate Voi...
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Earth-PIA08324-1.jpgEarth, from Saturn's Space (1)82 visiteCaption NASA originale:"Not since NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft saw our home as a pale blue dot from beyond the orbit of Neptune has Earth been imaged in color from the Outer Solar System. Now, Cassini casts powerful eyes on our home Planet, and captures Earth, a pale blue orb - and a faint suggestion of our Moon - among the glories of the Saturn System.
Earth is captured here in a natural color portrait made possible by the passing of Saturn directly in front of the Sun from Cassini's point of view. At the distance of Saturn's orbit, Earth is too narrowly separated from the Sun for the spacecraft to safely point its cameras and other instruments toward its birthplace without protection from the Sun's glare.
The Earth-and-Moon System is visible as a bright blue point on the right side of the image above center. Here, Cassini is looking down on the Atlantic Ocean and the Western Coast of North Africa. The phase angle of Earth, seen from Cassini is about 30°".
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Atlas-N00084629.jpgAtlas (2)82 visitenessun commentoMareKromium
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New_Moon-PIA08369_full_movie.gifA "New Moon" for Saturn82 visiteCaption NASA:"The 60th moon of Saturn reveals itself in a sequence of images. The discovery suggests that the new moon, along with its neighbors Methone and Pallene (discovered by the Cassini imaging team in 2004), may form part of a larger group of moons in this region. The movie spans 6 hours.
Initial calculations show the moon to have a width of approx. 2 Km (1,2 miles), with an orbit that lies between those of the moons Methone and Pallene. The moon's orbit is in resonance with another moon, Mimas, also seen in this sequence as a very bright, moving object. The new moon's location is indicated by a red box.
The (narrow) ring visible in the images is the G-Ring, and the G-Ring arc passes through the field of view during the course of the movie. Calypso, a Trojan moon of Tethys, is also visible in the sequence. Trojan moons are found near gravitationally stable points ahead or behind a larger moon.
This view looks toward the non-illuminated side of the Rings from about 3° above the Ring-Plane.
The series of images was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on May 30, 2007, at a distance of approximately 1.76 million kilometers (1.09 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is about 105 kilometers (65 miles) per pixel. The ghostly shape that stretches across the scene results from scattered light within the camera optics".MareKromium
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Sky-W00049976.jpgBizarre Reflection in the Space of Saturn...82 visiteSembrerebbe, a prima vista, un riflesso generato dalla lente della camera che riprende (una sorta di "Lens Flare"), ma non lo è.
Sembra il residuo luminescente che caratterizza le esplosioni che occorrono in atmosfera rarefatta o nel vuoto, ma si tratta di un'idea davvero insostanziabile e MOLTO esotica.
Forse è solo un vizio dell'immagine oppure - anche se stentiamo a crederlo - un riflesso generato dalle Fontane di Encelado (lontane oltre mezzo milione di Km da CASSINI, al momento dello scatto): un riflesso generato da miliardi di microparticelle di ghiaccio che, illuminate dalla luce di Saturno - e da quella di un Sole molto lontano -, prima di perdersi nello Spazio, sembrano disegnare una sorta di scia di luce.
Chissà...
Caption NASA:"W00049976.jpg was taken on October 09, 2008 and received on Earth October 09, 2008. The camera was pointing toward ENCELADUS that, at the time, was approx. 537.268 Km away.
The image was taken using the CL1 and CL2 filters".MareKromium
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Dione-PIA12711.jpgA beautiful crescent Dione (with a "Small Companion", maybe...)82 visiteCaption NASA:"A thin crescent of highly Cratered Terrain is illuminated on Saturn's third largest moon, Dione. Lit Terrain seen here is on the Saturn-facing side of Dione. North is up.
The image was taken in Visible Light with the Cassini Spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 17, 2010.
The view was acquired at a distance of approx. 394.000 Km (about 245.000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-Spacecraft, or Phase, Angle of 151°.
Image scale is roughly 2 Km (about 1,2 miles) per pixel".MareKromium
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Enceladus-N00165320-21-22-23-cl1-cl2-MF-LXTT.jpgThe "Snow-Moon" (an Image-Mosaic in True Colors by Dr Marco Faccin - Lunexit Team)82 visitenessun commentoMareKromium
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The_Rings-PIA08306-PCF-LXTT-IPF.jpgThe beautiful and colorful Rings of Saturn (Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga - Lunar Explorer Italia/Italian Planetary Foundation) 82 visiteThis is a spectacular view - obtained by the NASA - Cassini Spacecraft - that shows us the subtle golden and gray/whitish colors which characterize the Outer B-Ring, the Cassini Division and the inner part of the A-Ring of the Giant Gas-Planet Saturn. In this viewing geometry, the brightest feature in the Cassini Division is the (relatively) recently discovered diffuse Ringlet which lies near the Outer Edge of the Division (and this diffuse Ringlet shows a quite peculiar bluish cast). The colors of the Rings, as they look in this picture, appear more golden than ever because of the Viewing Geometry that was adopted: as a matter of fact, an increased scattering in the ice and rock particles forming the Rings was brought about not only by the high Phase Angle (such as the angle drawn and defined by the Sun, the Rings and the NASA - Cassini Spacecraft), but also by the circumstance that this view was obtained while the Spacecraft was watching towards the Unlit Side of the Rings, from about 30° above the Ring-Plane. The images used to create this frame were acquired by the NASA - Cassini Spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 29, 2006, at a distance of approx. 1,8 MKM (about 1,13 MMs) from the Rings of Saturn and the image scale is roughly 11 Km (such as about 7 miles) per pixel.
Remember that the NASA - CASSINI Original b/w frame has been additionally processed and then re-colorized, according to an informed speculation carried out by Dr Paolo C. Fienga (LXTT-IPF), in Absolute Natural Colors (such as the colors that a human eye would actually perceive if someone were onboard the NASA - Cassini Spacecraft and then looked outside, towards the Rings of Satun), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team. Different colors, as well as different shades of the same color, mean, among others, the existence of different Elements in the Rings of Satun, each having a different Albedo (---> Reflectivity) and Chemical Composition.MareKromium
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SATURN by VOYAGER - 1980.jpgSaturn from the Voyager81 visitenessun commento
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