Saturn: the "Ringed Beauty" and His Moons

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Inizio > SOLAR SYSTEM > Saturn: the "Ringed Beauty" and His Moons

Piú votate - Saturn: the "Ringed Beauty" and His Moons

Saturn-N00020944.jpgThe "Head" of Saturn54 visitenessun commento

(29 voti)

Tethys-PIA06140_modest.jpgTethys in natural colors58 visiteCaption NASA originale:"Having passed closer to Tethys than the Voyager 2 spacecraft, Cassini has returned the best-ever natural color view of this icy Saturnian moon.
As seen here, the battered surface of Tethys has a neutral hue. The image here is a mosaic of two footprints. Three images taken in the red, green and blue filters were taken to form a natural color composite. The result reveals a world nearly saturated with craters - many small craters lie on top of older, larger ones, suggesting an ancient surface. At the top and along the boundary between day and night, the moon's terrain has a grooved appearance.
This moon is known to have a density very close to that of water, indicating it is likely composed mainly of water ice. Its frozen mysteries await Cassini's planned close flyby in September 2005".

(24 voti)

Dione-N00041249.jpgExtremely high "albedo" on some of Dione's surface features (1)56 visiteLo spettacolare "passaggio ravvicinato" di Cassini accanto a Dione sta per finire ed ora la Sonda Euro-Americana è già ad oltre 16.000 Km di distanza da questa "icy moon", come la chiamano alla NASA. Questi ultimi 3 frames che Vi proponiamo, però, nonostante la loro non buona qualità, ci fanno vedere qualcosa di davvero strano: si tratta dell'albedo elevatissima dei rilievi di Dione che - supponiamo - si trovano proprio sulla Linea del Terminatore. Uno dei 3 frames è molto mosso e sfuocato; gli altri 2 sono appena migliori, ma la nostra sorpresa non cambia: il rilievo illuminato di Dione brilla di luce davvero intensa e, a nostro parere, si tratta di un evento che, in queste proporzioni, diventa meritevole di un particolare interesse.

Verificate Voi stessi...

(12 voti)

Helene-PIA07547.jpgThe Trojan Moons: Helene, from 760.000 Km68 visiteCaption NASA originale:"Saturn's moons Helene and tiny Polydeuces (not seen here) are Trojan moons of Dione, orbiting about 60° ahead of and behind, the much larger moon. Trojan moons are usually found near gravitationally stable points ahead or behind a larger moon. Polydeuces (or S/2004 S5) was discovered by the Cassini imaging team. Helene is 32 Km (20 miles) across, while Dione is 1.118 Km (695 miles) across.
Tethys also has two of its own Trojan moons.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 20, 2005, at a distance of approx. 760.000 Km (such as about 472.000 miles) from Helene. The image scale is 5 Km (about 3 miles) per pixel. This view of Helene has been magnified by a factor of three and sharpened to aid visibility".

Nota: raffrontate questa immagine di Helene con quella ottenuta dalla Sonda Voyager 2. Ma secondo Voi stiamo guardando sempre lo stesso oggetto?!?

(12 voti)

Mimas-PIA06142_modest.jpgMimas and Saturn in real colors63 visiteCaption NASA originale:"In a splendid portrait created by light and gravity, Saturn's lonely moon Mimas is seen against the cool, blue-streaked backdrop of Saturn's northern hemisphere. Delicate shadows cast by the rings arc gracefully across the planet, fading into darkness on Saturn's night side. The bright blue swath near Mimas is created by sunlight passing through the Cassini division (4.800 Km wide). The rightmost part of this distinctive feature is slightly overexposed and therefore bright white in this image. Shadows of several thin ringlets within the division can be seen here as well. The dark band that stretches across the center of the image is the shadow of Saturn's B-Ring, the densest of the main rings. Part of the actual Cassini division appears at the bottom, along with the A-Ring and the narrow, outer F-Ring. The A-Ring is transparent enough that, from this viewing angle, the atmosphere and threadlike shadows cast by the inner C-Ring are visible through it".

(12 voti)

Saturn storms_-PIA06477_modest.jpgAn "oval" storm near Saturn's South Pole56 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".

(12 voti)

Saturn_s F-Ring+Mimas-PIA06471_modest.jpgLonely Mimas...57 visiteCaption NASA originale:"Mimas swings around Saturn, seeming to gaze down at the planet's splendid rings. The outermost, narrow F ring is visible here and exhibits some clumpy structure near the bottom of the frame. The shadow of Saturn's southern hemisphere stretches almost entirely across the rings. Mimas is 398 Km (247 miles) wide.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on August 15, 2004, at a distance of 8,8 MKM (5.5 million miles) from Saturn".

(12 voti)

Saturn in the darkness-N00015836.jpgSaturn (and Titan?) in the darkness57 visiteA volte, quando invitiamo i nostri Lettori ad immaginare, mentre guardano le "istantanee dell'Universo", di "essere lì", sospesi in una sorta di abisso senza confini visibili, circondati da oggetti maestosi ed impenetrabili, pensiamo al film "2001 - Odissea nello Spazio", quando Dave Bowman esce nello Spazio di Giove a bordo della sua navetta, per andare a vedere il Monolito da vicino. Questo frame, in qualche modo, ci ricorda quella sequenza e noi ve lo proponiamo...

(12 voti)