| Piú viste - Saturn: the "Ringed Beauty" and His Moons |
Saturn_s Clouds-V1-PIA00026_modest.jpgSaturn's Clouds from Voyager 159 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-The Atlas Ring-The New Object-PIA06115.jpgThe "New Object" found in Saturn's "F-Ring" (1)59 visiteEcco il nuovo enigma che ci viene proposto da Saturno e che, come già si era detto, potrà affascinare coloro che conoscono la storia (o la "leggenda", se preferite) dei "Ringmasters of Saturn". Questa, in originale, la nota di commento al fenomeno rilasciata dalla NASA: "A small new found object, temporarily designated S/2004 S 3, has been seen orbiting Saturn's outer F ring. Its nature, moon or clump, is not presently known".
Una dichiarazione che ci lascia davvero pensare...
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Saturn in infrared-HST-PIA01268_modest.jpgInfrared view of Saturn - HST59 visiteCaption NASA originale:"The blue colors indicate a clear atmosphere down to a main cloud layer. The green and yellow colors indicate a haze above the main cloud layer. The red and orange colors indicate clouds reaching up high into the atmosphere and red clouds are even higher than the orange ones. The densest regions of two storms near Saturn's equator appear white hile the rings, basically made up of chunks of ice, are as white as images of ice taken in visible light".
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Saturn storms_-PIA06477_modest.jpgAn "oval" storm near Saturn's South Pole59 visiteCaption NASA originale:"The region near Saturn's south pole shows a great deal of fascinating detail in this view from Cassini. Near upper right, an oval-shaped storm is bordered to the north and south by bright streaks of cloud, and two dark storms hover in a brighter cloud lane near the center.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Aug. 7, 2004, at a distance of 8.4 million kilometers (5.2 million miles) from Saturn through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light. The image scale is 50 kilometers (31 miles) per pixel".
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Saturn and Prometheus-PIA06481_modest.jpgSaturn and Prometheus59 visiteCaption NASA originale:"Saturn's moon Prometheus is seen shepherding the inner edge of Saturn's "F-Ring". Prometheus is 102 Km across and was captured in a close-up view by the Cassini spacecraft near the time of orbital insertion at Saturn (see PIA06098). A number of clumps are visible here along the arcing "F-Ring".
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Aug. 5, 2004, at a distance of 8.2 MKM from Saturn through a filter sensitive to visible green light. The image scale is 49 Km per pixel. Contrast was slightly enhanced to aid visibility".
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Saturn and Enceladus - PIA06483_modest.jpgSaturn and Enceladus (in ultra-violet)59 visiteCaption NASA originale:"Looking beyond Saturn's south pole, this was the Cassini spacecraft's view of the distant, icy moon, Enceladus on July 28, 2004. The planet itself shows few obvious features at these ultraviolet wavelengths, due to scattering of light by molecules of the gases high in the atmosphere. Enceladus is 499 Km wide.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera at a distance of 7.4 MKM from Saturn through a filter sensitive to ultraviolet wavelengths of light. The image scale is 44 Km per pixel of Saturn".
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Saturn + 1-N00019307.jpgSaturn and one little Moon N 0001930759 visiteVi proponiamo due immagini da guarddare in stretta correlazione. In questo primo frame, Saturno è accompagnato da una delle sue tante Lune. Non sapremmo dire di quale si tratti, ma questo non è un dato - in questa sede - di importanza fondamentale. EccoVi il commento NASA al frame:"N00019307.jpg was taken on September 24, 2004 and received on Earth September 25, 2004. The camera was pointing toward SATURN at approximately 7.752.936 Km away and the image was taken using the BL1 and CL2 filters".
Accanto alla Luna di Saturno si può intuire - espandendo il frame sino a full-size - una leggera ombratura chiara. Noi abbiamo pensato che fosse un difetto dell'immagine. Ma ora andate a guardare il frame successivo...
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Saturn-PIA06485_modest.jpgSaturn, Janus and Mimas (in natural colors)59 visiteCaption NASA originale:"Looking something like the fibrous bow of a violin, Saturn's colorful rings sweep through this spectacular natural color view while two small moons look on.
From left, the moons visible here are Janus (181 Km across) and Mimas (398 Km across). Cassini's view in this image is from beneath the ring plane; the moons are on the far side of Saturn. Janus leads Mimas as the two moons orbit the planet. Nearly the entire ring system can be seen in this view. The diaphanous C-Ring appears at the upper right, followed by the multi-hued B-Ring. Next, the famous Cassini division (4.800 Km wide) separates the A and B rings. The outer edge of the B-Ring which forms the inner boundary of the Cassini division is maintained by a gravitational resonance with Mimas. Near the outer edge of the A-Ring are the Encke Gap (325 Km wide) and the barely visible Keeler Gap (35 Km wide). The faint, thread-like F-Ring is slightly discernible just beyond the main rings".
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Saturn_s sky-N00020366.jpgThe Sky of Saturn59 visiteIl cielo di Saturno, visto da Cassini/Huygens. Queste immagini, purtroppo, non vengono molto pubblicizzate, nè dalla NASA nè da altri organi di informazione (scientifica o meramente divulgativa). Il motivo è abbastanza chiaro: frame come questo - si dice - non mostrano "nulla di particolare", se non qualche stella e qualche satellite di Saturno. Secondo noi, frame come questo possiedono una grandissima magia ed un enorme fascino: lo Spazio visto DALLO Spazio! Qualcuno ha detto che "...Se non c'è bellezza, non ci può essere curiosità; e se non c'è curiosità, non ci può essere scienza alcuna...".
Noi siamo d'accordo.
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The Rings-N00021001.jpgThe "Rings"59 visiteAltissima definizione per questa spettacolare veduta degli Anelli di Saturno: un'immagine - almeno apparentemente - perfetta.
E meno male che, secondo alcuni (le solite "Cassandre"...), la Sonda Cassini-Huygens, su Saturno (oppure in orbita attorno a Saturno) non ci sarebbe mai arrivata...
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Saturn-N00020944.jpgThe "Head" of Saturn59 visitenessun commento
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Saturn-N00020984.jpgThe "Rings"59 visitenessun commento
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