With all the attention to New Horizons and Pluto lets not forget the veteran spaceship Cassini which makes wonders around Saturn and sometimes it seems as there is an artist photographer sitting there to get these great compositions.
Cassini is now on its 219's Rev around Saturn. The orbit is very elliptical and spans from about 200,000km to over 2,000,000km. Such an orbit is required to measure Saturn's gravitational field and also give chance to flybys around the moons. Each Rev is well planned in advance and is fully using the time to observe Saturn and the moons.
Cassini is now on its 219's Rev around Saturn. The orbit is very elliptical and spans from about 200,000km to over 2,000,000km. Such an orbit is required to measure Saturn's gravitational field and also give chance to flybys around the moons. Each Rev is well planned in advance and is fully using the time to observe Saturn and the moons.
Here are some of the best photos of 2015
You can see many more at Cassini's website and I've added a link for each photo for more explanations and details in that website.
All photos are courtesy of NASA
Lets start with an old photo which is not very familiar. This is a very known object from a completly different angel.
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| Southern pole of Jupiter: Cassini. NASA |
What do you see in the following unreal picture? Obviously you see the ring but what is behind the ring? It is the ring shadow in Saturn surface! Cubist art in its best.
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| Modern art in Saturn's rings |
This is moon Rhea. do I see that it also has a heart shape on it or is is my imagination?
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| Rhea |
A flying sponge? That's what most people think of Hyperion
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| Hyperion |
And Tethys looks just like the death star from star-wars (Me and the children are eagerly waiting for episode VII!)
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| Tethys |
Dione is beautifully aligned on Saturn ring which is extremely narrow in this photo. The dark silhouette of Saturn is a great background.
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| Dione |
Three moons in one shot and all of them thin crescent. hoe can that happen?
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| Titan Mimas and Rhea |
Who's who? The large object is Saturn! look carefully for the thin ring in the right middle. The small object is Titan which is a very large moon but small in front of giant Saturn.
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| Saturn and Titan |
Janus and a tiny fraction of the rings below
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| Janus |
Previous articles about Cassini and Saturn: