NASA: Cassini Spacecrafy Checking in on Saturn - The Boston Globe - Part 2
Posted by Ricardo Marcenaro | Posted in NASA: Cassini Spacecrafy Checking in on Saturn - The Boston Globe - Part 2 | Posted on 19:41
While we humans carry on with our daily lives down here on Earth, perhaps stuck in traffic or reading blogs, or just enjoying a Springtime stroll, a school-bus-sized spacecraft called Cassini continues to gather data and images for us - 1.4 billion kilometers (870 million miles) away. Over the past months, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has made several close flybys of Saturn's moons, caught the Sun's reflection glinting off a lake on Titan, and has brought us even more tantalizing images of ongoing cryovolcanism on Enceladus. Collected here are a handful of recent images from the Saturnian system.
NASA: Cassini Spacecrafy Checking in on Saturn - The Boston Globe - Part 2
Icy jets of Enceladus are viewed by Cassini on May 18th, 2010 at a distance of approximately 17,000 km (11,000 mi). Cassini is on the night side of the moon, viewing brightly-lit plumes of ice being ejected from fissures at Enceladus' south pole. Image scale is 100 meters (329 feet) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI)
Another view of Enceladus' southern ice plumes, seen on November 21, 2009. The moon's cryovolcanic activity was first discovered by Cassini in 2005, and continues to be a focus of research. Primarily made up of water vapor, the plumes also contain trace amounts of nitrogen, methane, carbon dioxide, propane, ethane, and acetylene. (NASA/JPL/SSI)
A closer view of a feature on Enceladus called Baghdad Sulcus, one of four "tiger stripes" that cross Enceladus' south pole, seen on November 21, 2009. Cassini was targeting the area to examine plume sources, the scale is approximately 30m (100ft) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI)
An even closer view of Baghdad Sulcus on Enceladus, seen by Cassini on November 21, 2009. With a scale of approximately 12m (40ft) per pixel, relatively small surface features such as icy boulders appear visible. This image covers approximately 12 km (7.5 mi) from side to side. (NASA/JPL/SSI)
Enceladus continues to spew ice into space, seen by Cassini on October 14, 2009. (NASA/JPL/SSI)
On May 18, 2010, Cassini aimed its camera towards Saturn's largest moon Titan, capturing at the same time the edge of Enceladus (dark region at bottom) and Saturn's rings between the two moons. (NASA/JPL/SSI)
An October 14th, 2009 view of Saturn's brightly lit moon Tethys. Tethys is one of the four Saturnian moons discovered by astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini, first seen in 1684. It is an icy body slightly larger than 1,000 km (620 mi) across. (NASA/JPL/SSI)
Appearing like eyes on a potato, craters cover the dimly lit surface of the moon Prometheus in this image from the Cassini spacecraft's flyby on January 27th, 2010. This view looks toward the trailing hemisphere of Prometheus (86 km, or 53 mi across). The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 34,000 km (21,000 mi) from Prometheus. Image scale is 200 meters (656 feet) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI)
Saturn's moon Rhea looms near its sibling moon Epimetheus in this Cassini image with the planet and its rings in the background. The two moons aren't actually close to each other. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.2 million km (746,000 mi) from Rhea and 1.6 million km (994,000 mi) from Epimetheus. The image was taken on March 24, 2010. Image scale is 7 km (5 mi) per pixel on Rhea and 10 km (6 mi) per pixel on Epimetheus. (NASA/JPL/SSI)
On December 25, 2009, Cassini was on the dark side of Saturn and took this image looking toward the moon Enceladus, seen at top, beyond the planet and its rings. Light passing through Saturn's atmosphere creates the bright arc seen from the top to the bottom of the image. At bottom center, the light passing through is blocked by shadows from the rings. (NASA/JPL/SSI)
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Mis blogs son una casa abierta a todas las culturas, religiones y países. Se un seguidor si quieres, con esta acción usted está construyendo una nueva cultura de la tolerancia, la mente y el corazón abiertos para la paz, el amor y el respeto humano.
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