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Related: About this forumAn Incredible View of Saturn that Could Only Be Seen by a Visiting Spacecraft
So what did NASA do during the US government shutdown? You cant just turn off spacecraft that are operating millions of miles away, so missions like the Mars rovers and the Cassini spacecraft at Saturn continued to send back images to Earth during the 16 days that most of NASA wasnt up and running like usual. On October 10, 2013, as Cassini flew high above the planets equatorial plane, the spacecrafts camera took 36 images of Saturn, a dozen each using the various red, green, and blue filters used to create color images. The images were transferred back to Earth and put on the Cassini raw images page. Gordon Ugarkovic from Croatia, and a member of the image editing wizards at UnmannedSpaceflight.com, grabbed the raw files, processed them, then assembled the images into this jaw-dropping mosaic.
This is a view from Saturn that we could never get from Earth; only a spacecraft orbiting the planet could take it. You can see the north pole and the swirling maelstrom of clouds that creates the hexagonal polar vortex, the thin bands in Saturns atmosphere, and of course what really stands out is the incredible view of Saturns rings. To see the original 3 MB version, see this page on UMSF.
You shouldnt be surprised to see processing artifacts here and there, cautioned Ugarkovic via email to Universe Today. It is, after all, based on raw JPEG images only.
more
http://www.flickr.com/photos/badastronomy/10328043663/sizes/c/in/photostream/
Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/105593/an-incredible-view-of-saturn-that-could-only-be-seen-by-a-visiting-spacecraft/
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)ThoughtCriminal
(14,049 posts)Thin, barely visible. Ring systems like Saturn? I can't wait to find out.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Initech
(100,102 posts)Last edited Thu Oct 17, 2013, 11:41 PM - Edit history (1)
One Saturn's moons:
<snip>
the ship had long since passed the boundary set by outermost Phoebe, moving backward in a wildly eccentric orbit eight million miles from its primary. Ahead of it now lay Iapetus, Hyperion, Titan, Rhea, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus, Mimas, Janus and the rings themselves. All the satellites showed a maze of surface detail
Titan alone three thousand miles in diameter, and as large as Mercury would occupy
months
There was more; already he was certain that Iapetus was his goal.
One hemisphere of the satellite, which, like its companions, turned the same face always toward Saturn, was extremely dark, and showed very little surface detail. In complete contrast, the other was dominated by a brilliant white oval, about four hundred miles long and two hundred wide. At the moment, only part of this striking formation was in daylight, but the reason for Iapetuss extraordinary variations in brilliance was now quite obvious
. <snip>
Arthur C. Clarke
This site is about Iapetus in one man's thoughts. A room with A VIEW: http://www.enterprisemission.com/moon1.htm
edit to add: http://all-that-is-interesting.com/important-image-captured-by-hubble
tridim
(45,358 posts)And still unexplained.
Beautiful pic!
Victor_c3
(3,557 posts)They don't even look real to me. But, then again, it's not like I have any better idea what they are supposed to look like...
IrishAyes
(6,151 posts)ffr
(22,671 posts)Very cool!
Aldo Leopold
(685 posts)Thanks, bro!
rocktivity
(44,577 posts)rocktivity
It's only a planet
JohnnyRingo
(18,641 posts)It's one of those images that make me glad I lived long enough to see it. I caught it a couple nights ago on "Astronomy Picture of the Day":
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
I sure missed that site during the shutdown.
Cassini has been sending back some incredible images for at least a year now, but this one takes the prize! Thanx for posting.