| Piú viste - Saturn: the "Ringed Beauty" and His Moons |
Enceladus-N00118363.jpgThe Unbelievable Surface of Enceladus, from about 1500 Km!59 visiteCaption NASA:"Caption NASA:"N00118365.jpg was taken on August 11, 2008 and received on Earth August 12, 2008. The camera was pointing toward ENCELADUS that, at the time, was approximately 1564 Km away.
The image was taken using the CL1 and CL2 filters and it has not been validated or calibrated".
Nota Lunexit: osservate come l'avvicinarsi alla Linea del Terminatore rende le immagini straordinariamente affilate e dense di profondità...MareKromium
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Enceladus-PIA11106.jpgCairo Sulcus59 visiteCaption NASA:"This image is the 3rd skeet-shoot image taken during Cassini's very close flyby of Enceladus on Aug. 11, 2008.
Cairo Sulcus is crossing the southern part of the image. The terrain is littered with blocks of ice.
The image was taken with the Cassini Spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 11, 2008, a distance of approx. 2446 Km (such as about 1396 miles) above the surface of Enceladus.
Image scale is approximately 18 meters (59 feet) per pixel". MareKromium
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Enceladus-PIA11114.jpgBaghdad and Cairo Sulci on Enceladus (possible True Colors; credits: Lunexit)59 visiteCaption NASA:"Cassini shot past the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus on Aug. 11, 2008, acquiring a set of 7 HR images targeting known hot spot locations on the moon's "Tiger Stripe" fractures, or Sulci.
Five of those images are presented in this mosaic.
Features on Enceladus are named for characters and places from "The Arabian Nights", and the four most prominent Sulci are named Alexandria, Cairo, Baghdad and Damascus. Here, Baghdad Sulcus runs across the top mosaic tile, from lower left to upper right. Cairo Sulcus runs from left to right just beneath the center tile.
One highly anticipated result of this flyby was to pinpoint previously identified source locations for the jets that blast icy particles, water vapor and trace organics into space.
The yellow circles indicate the Jets' Source Locations I and V, as identified in PIA08385" .
Scientists are using these new images to study geologic activity associated with the sulci, and effects on the surrounding terrain. This information, coupled with observations by Cassini's other instruments, may answer the question of whether reservoirs of liquid water exist beneath the surface.
The mosaic consists of five images taken with the clear spectral filters on Cassini's narrow-angle camera. The view is an orthographic projection with an image scale of 14,5 meters (47,5 feet) per pixel. The area shown here is centered on 81,6° South Latitude and 56,5° West Longitude. The original images ranged in resolution from 10 to 24 meters (33 to 79 feet) per pixel and were taken at distances ranging from 1288 to 3600 Km (such as from about 800 to approx. 2237 miles) from Enceladus".MareKromium
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The_Rings-PIA10454.jpgOut of the Darkness (natural colors; credits: NASA)59 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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Dione-N00119788.jpgCross-Worlds! (4)59 visitenessun commentoMareKromium
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Dione-N00119785.jpgCross-Worlds! (1)59 visiteI "lineamenti" superficiali di Dione sono inconfondibili; più difficile, invece, è l'individuazione del secondo Corpo Celeste che va ad incrociare Dione. Le immagini non sono perfette e la loro definizione è scarsa; tuttavia, applicando una notevole magnificazione, ci sembra di intravedere il bordo di un grande cratere, situato all'estremo Nord (dal punto di vista di Cassini - ergo dell'Osservatore) della seconda luna.
Si tratta, forse, del grande cratere Herschel, noto anche come "L'Occhio di Mimas".
Oppure, come suggerisce l'albedo della seconda luna, si potrebbe trattare di Encelado?
E Voi che ne dite?
In attesa che la NASA ci confermi o ci smentisca "l'ID" della seconda luna, le Vostre opinioni saranno profondamente apprezzate!MareKromium
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Sky-W00049978.jpgBizarre Reflection in the Space of Saturn...59 visiteCaption NASA:"W00049978.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. 536.451 Km away. The image was taken using the CL1 and CL2 filters".MareKromium
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Saturn-PIA10493.jpgSaturn (natural colors; credits: NASA)59 visiteCaption NASA:"The Cassini Spacecraft looks toward the sunlit face of Saturn's Rings, whose shadows continue to slide southward on the Planet toward their temporary disappearance during equinox in August 2009.
This two-frame color mosaic was created from images taken as part of a photometry observation of the Rings. Photometry observations are useful for determining a host of ring particle properties.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the Rings from about 3° below the Ring-Plane. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini Spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 22, 2008 at a distance of approx. 1,2 MKM (such as about 728.000 miles) from Saturn.
Image scale is roughly 66 Km (about 41 miles) per pixel".MareKromium
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Dione-PIA10496.jpgThe Bright Canyons of Dione59 visiteCaption NASA:"Dione's defining feature, the fractures on its Trailing Side, shine brilliantly in this Cassini Spacecraft view.
The view was acquired from a position 33° South of the moon's Equator. Lit terrain seen here is on the Trailing Side of Dione (approx. 1123 Km, or about 698 miles across). North is up and rotated 8° to the right.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 11, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 833,000 kilometers (517,000 miles) from Dione and at a Phase Angle of 67°. Image scale is about 5 Km (a little more than 3 miles) per pixel.
The image was taken with the Cassini Spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 26, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers.
The view was acquired at a distance of approx. 397.000 Km (about 246.000 miles) from Saturn.
Image scale is roughly 20 Km (about 13 miles) per pixel".MareKromium
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Dione-PIA10500.jpgCross-Worlds: the Answer!59 visiteRicordate la sequenza (intitolata, appunto, Cross-Worlds) che pubblicammo qualche settimana fa (era il 14 Settembre 2008, per l'esattezza) e che ci mostrava (ovviamente nell'ottica di CASSINI) Dione mentre eclissava un'altra Luna non identificata?
Noi ipotizzammo che si potesse trattare di Mimas o di Encelado. La NASA, oggi, tramite il suo Planetary Photojournal, ci ha risposto: si trattava di Encelado.
Un grazie alla NASA (che, quando vuole, sa anche rispondere) ed un 6+ a noi perchè, anche se non siamo riusciti ad identificare con sicurezza assoluta la seconda luna "misteriosa" in transito, siamo stati comunque abbastanza bravi dal ridurre la rosa dei "candidati" a due soli Corpi Celesti.
Insomma...Non male!MareKromium
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Enceladus-PIA11121.jpgEnceladus Oct. 9, 2008 Flyby59 visiteCaption NASA:"The image was taken with the Cassini Spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 9, 2008, a distance of approx. 42.000 Km (about 26.000 miles) from Enceladus.
Image scale is 503 meters (1650 feet) per pixel".MareKromium
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Enceladus-PIA10498.jpgNorthern Craters of Enceladus (natural colors; credits: Lunexit)59 visiteCaption NASA:"This image is part of an observation designed to view the moon's plume of icy particles at a moderately High Phase Angle.
The "Phase Angle" is the angle formed between the Sun, the target being imaged, and the Spacecraft, and it ranges from 0 to 180°. Tiny particles, like those in the plume, brighten substantially at high phase angles.
This view was taken from a vantage point 37° above the Equator of Enceladus (about 504 Km, or approx. 313 miles across). Reflected light from Saturn dimly illuminates the moon's dark side.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini Spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 17, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approx. 262.000 Km (such as about 163.000 miles) from Enceladus and at a Phase Angle of 140°.
Image scale is roughly 2 Km (5137 feet) per pixel".MareKromium
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