662-mile-wide Tethys, as seen by Cassini on March 3, 2010. Part of the 1200-mile-long Ithaca Chasma can be seen on its western edge, running north to south. With a density .97 times that of liquid water, Tethys is almost completely made of ice. Image has been adjusted to bring out surface details. Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science…
Category: Saturn
Hello, Helene!
On March 3 the Cassini spacecraft flew by the 22-mile-wide Helene, an irregularly-shaped moon orbiting Saturn in the same path as the much larger Dione. Cassini was about 1,200 miles from the moon when this image was taken. See more photos of Helene on the Cassini imaging center website here. Image: NASA/JPL/SSI
I can has craters?
Looking like sand on a beach after a hard rain, the surface of Rhea is literally coated with craters of all sizes, to the point where it’s hard to tell where one ends and another begins. These raw images are fresh in from Cassini’s flyby of Saturn’s second-largest moon, which occurred yesterday. The spacecraft passed…
Slices of Light
While waiting for images from Cassini’s flyby of Rhea I saw this raw image, showing the stark crescent of Enceladus above the bands of Saturn’s rings, seen edge-on. A beautiful composition that deserved sharing. Where’s the moon’s geysers, you say? Don’t worry. They’re there. They just need the right lighting. Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute UPDATE: And…
Deep Impacts
This just in, a late straggler from Cassini’s recent flyby of Mimas. It shows the northern region of the “other side” of Mimas opposite the moon’s signature Herschel crater. The sheer walls of some of the craters near the top left are 2-3 miles high – or deep, depending on how you look at it…
Shadow Caster
It’s been a while since I posted any moon shadow images but they’re always cool to look at, since they add another dimension to a scene that can sometimes be hard to put into context. This image, taken by Cassini on January 10 and released today, shows the 12-mile-wide shepherd moon Pan cruising along within the…
The Trailing Trojan
In a bit of more flyby goodness here’s a photo of Calypso, taken in ultraviolet light, showing nice shading on its surface and some interesting streak patterns that seem to follow the contours of the potato-shaped moon. This image was taken on Saturday, February 13, at a distance of about 14,000 miles. 19-mile-long Calypso is…
That’s No Moon…
…it’s a space sta– oh nevermind. It is a moon. 😉 Photos are in from Cassini’s flyby of Mimas on Saturday and they don’t disappoint! The 250-mile wide inner moon of Saturn performed very well in front of Cassini’s cameras, displaying its heavily-cratered surface and showing off its trademark Herschel crater; at 88 miles wide…
A Traveler’s Guide to the Planets on National Geographic Channel
This is a great series airing over the next few nights on the National Geographic Channel…the above is a segment recapping Cassini’s approach to Saturn in 2004. Revisit the excitement of the mission team as they successfully establish orbit and see some of the amazing first images sent back by Cassini. The shows are well-made…
Signs of a Hidden Sea
Cassini mission scientists have more support for the existence of an underground ocean on Enceladus, in the form of negatively-charged ions present in the moon’s southern ice geysers. In a report released February 8, 2009, the Cassini Science League announced that researchers have identified these ions using the spacecraft’s plasma spectrometer data from recent flybys…
Shear Delight
Monstrous eddies in Saturn’s upper atmosphere are clearly visible in this near-infrared image from Cassini, taken in November 2009 and released on NASA’s planetary Photojournal on February 4. Winds on Saturn are some of the fastest in the solar system, blowing around the planet in opposing bands at speeds of several hundreds of miles per…
Moons Near and Far…and More to Come!
246-mile-wide Mimas (foreground) and 70-mile-wide Epimetheus bracket a section of Saturn’s rings in this color-calibrated image from the Cassini spacecraft, taken in October 2009. Happily, we can expect to see beautiful images like this for another 7 years…NASA has extended the Cassini mission until at least 2017! During that time Cassini will transition into its…
Lights in the Dark 