"Кассини" !

ЦитироватьThis photo looking down onto Saturn's summer north pole was taken on November 27, 2012 from a distance of 361,000 kilometers through an infrared (CB2) filter. It has been filtered to reduce noise from cosmic ray hits and JPEG compression.

instml · 18.12.2012 23:37:16

From Cassini for the Holidays: A Splendor Seldom Seen
12.18.12

PASADENA, Calif -- Just in time for the holidays, NASA's Cassini spacecraft, in orbit around Saturn for more than eight years now, has delivered another glorious, backlit view of the planet Saturn and its rings.
On Oct. 17, 2012, during its 174th orbit around the gas giant, Cassini was deliberately positioned within Saturn's shadow, a perfect location from which to look in the direction of the sun and take a backlit view of the rings and the dark side of the planet. Looking back towards the sun is a geometry referred to by planetary scientists as "high solar phase;" near the center of your target's shadow is the highest phase possible. This is a very scientifically advantageous and coveted viewing position, as it can reveal details about both the rings and atmosphere that cannot be seen in lower solar phase.
The last time Cassini had such an unusual perspective on Saturn and its rings, at sufficient distance and with sufficient time to make a full system mosaic, occurred in September 2006, when it captured a mosaic, processed to look like natural color, entitled "In Saturn's Shadow." In that mosaic, planet Earth put in a special appearance, making "In Saturn's Shadow" one of the most popular Cassini images to date.
The mosaic being released today by the mission and the imaging team, in celebration of the 2012 holiday season, does not contain Earth; along with the sun, our planet is hidden behind Saturn. However, it was taken when Cassini was closer to Saturn and therefore shows more detail in the rings than the one taken in 2006.
The new processed mosaic, composed of 60 images taken in the violet, visible and near infrared part of the spectrum, can be found at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini , http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://ciclops.org .
"Of all the many glorious images we have received from Saturn, none are more strikingly unusual than those taken from Saturn's shadow," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini's imaging team lead based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20121218.html

instml · 12.02.2013 02:26:39

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/ 5 суток до пролета Титана

instml · 12.02.2013 02:28:48

Crescent Rhea
February 11, 2013

The Cassini spacecraft captures Saturn's moon Rhea at crescent phase, a view never visible from Earth. Near the terminator, a few of Rhea's many craters show up in sharp relief. With a diameter of 949 miles (1,528 kilometers) Rhea is Saturn's second-largest moon.
This view looks toward the leading hemisphere of Rhea. North on Rhea is up and rotated 12 degrees to the right.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 6, 2012. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.2 million miles (1.9 million kilometers) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 129 degrees. Scale in the original image was 7 miles (11 kilometers) per pixel. The image was magnified by a factor of 1.5 to enhance the visibility of surface features.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/imagedetails/index.cfm?imageId=4738

Сергио · 13.02.2013 12:57:08

Цитироватьinstml пишет:
That amazing image of Saturn's north pole just got better: now, it moves!

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2012/saturn-north-pole-animation.html

в плане фантастики - вот есть идеи исследовать атмосферу планеты.
а может стоит скинуть внутрь что нибудь! скжем очень прочные сферы. если радиосигнал не проходит - пусть посылают акустичекиий, как маяк, чтобы понять засасывает эта воронка и как глубоко и куда. акустический сигнал можно кодировать для связи. приёмники - аэростаты с горячим водородом как предлагал артур кларк.

Vikt(or) · 13.02.2013 10:29:48

Радиосигналы проходят атмосферу Сатурна. И любую другую атмосферу тоже.
А вот при ураганных ветрах передать акустические сигналы будет ооочень проблематично. Тем более на НОО Сатурна

sol · 13.02.2013 14:40:58

На Юпитер уже кидали зонд, на Сатурне еще глубже дойдет

instml · 20.02.2013 21:15:46

Data obtained by Saturn explorer brings mysteries of galactic cosmic ray closer

The Cassini spacecraft, which is a Saturn exploration project conducted jointly by NASA, ESA, and the Italian Space Agency, successfully observed in detail strong shock waves generated by a collision of solar winds with Saturn's magnetosphere. Through data analysis, new information was obtained about how high energy particles were generated in our Galaxy. This research achievement was led by JAXA researchers, and the thesis has been published in "Nature Physics," an online version of the British science magazine, issued on Feb. 17, 2013.

http://www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html

Electron acceleration to relativistic energies at a strong quasi-parallel shock wave

http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nphys2541.html

Cassini Sheds Light on Cosmic Particle Accelerators

February 19, 2013

During a chance encounter with what appears to be an unusually strong blast of solar wind at Saturn, NASA's Cassini spacecraft detected particles being accelerated to ultra-high energies. This is similar to the acceleration that takes place around distant supernovas.

Since we can't travel out to the far-off stellar explosions right now, the shockwave that forms fr om the flow of solar wind around Saturn's magnetic field provides a rare laboratory for scientists with the Cassini mission -- a partnership involving NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency -- to observe this phenomenon up-close. The findings, published this week in the journal Nature Physics, confirm that certain kinds of shocks can become considerably more effective electron accelerators than previously thought.

Shock waves are commonplace in the universe, for example in the aftermath of a stellar explosion as debris accelerate outward in a supernova remnant, or when the flow of particles from the sun - the solar wind - impinges on the magnetic field of a planet to form a bow shock. Under certain magnetic field orientations and depending on the strength of the shock, particles can be accelerated to close to the speed of light at these boundaries. These may be the dominant source of cosmic rays, high-energy particles that pervade our galaxy.

Scientists are particularly interested in "quasi-parallel" shocks, wh ere the magnetic field and the "forward"-facing direction of the shock are almost aligned, as may be found in supernova remnants. The new study, led by Adam Masters of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Sagamihara, Japan, describes the first detection of significant acceleration of electrons in a quasi-parallel shock at Saturn, coinciding with what may be the strongest shock ever encountered at the ringed planet.

"Cassini has essentially given us the capability of studying the nature of a supernova shock in situ in our own solar system, bridging the gap to distant high-energy astrophysical phenomena that are usually only studied remotely," said Masters.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA and ASI, the Italian space agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-064

instml · 07.03.2013 17:39:28

Cassini вглядывается в ускоритель частиц, созданный в космосе самой природой

Столкнувшись по чистой случайности с невероятно мощным потоком солнечного ветра неподалёку от Сатурна, космический аппарат НАСА Cassini обнаружил частицы, ускоренные до сверхвысоких энергий. Подобное ускорение имеет место при взрывах далёких сверхновых, говорят учёные.

Так как мы пока не научились путешествовать к далёким сверхновым, чтобы изучать их на месте, ударная волна, которая сформировалась при столкновении потока солнечного ветра с магнитным полем Сатурна, предоставляет учёным уникальную возможность словно бы наблюдать феномен сверхновой с близкого расстояния.

Ударные волны широко распространены во Вселенной, например,они имеют место в послесвечениях сверхновых, когда осколки, образовавшиеся во время звёздного взрыва, разлетаются с ускорением в разные стороны от остатков звезды, а также ударные волны способны образовываться при столкновении магнитного поля планеты и солнечного ветра — что и имеет место в случае, зафиксированном Cassini.

«Cassini дал нам возможность провести исследование сверхновой «in situ», не выходя при этом за пределы нашей Солнечной системы», — сказал Адам Мастерс, автор научной работы, посвящённой новой находке Cassini. Эта работа была опубликована в журнале Nature Physics.

20 Февраля 2013

http://www.astronews.ru/cgi-bin/mng.cgi?page=news&news=3467

instml · 07.03.2013 17:41:46

Скоро пролет Реи!

Rhea Flyby - March 9, 2013: Looking at the Internal Structure

Date
March 9, 2013

Altitude
620 miles (997 kilometers)

Speed
9.3 km/sec (21,000 mph)

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/flybys/rhea20130309/

Это фото было получено 10 марта 2012:

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA14605

instml · 07.03.2013 18:51:22

Яркая Венера за кольцами Сатурна

Cassini Spies Bright Venus From Saturn Orbit

03.04.13

Peering over the shoulder of giant Saturn, through its rings, and across interplanetary space, NASA's Cassini spacecraft spies the bright, cloudy terrestrial planet, Venus. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute › Full image and caption

Dawn on Saturn is greeted across the vastness of interplanetary space by the morning star, Venus, in this image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
› Full image and caption

PASADENA, Calif. - A distant world gleaming in sunlight, Earth's twin planet, Venus, shines like a bright beacon in images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn.
One special image of Venus and Saturn was taken last November when Cassini was placed in the shadow of Saturn. This allowed Cassini to look in the direction of the sun and Venus, and take a backlit image of Saturn and its rings in a particular viewing geometry called "high solar phase." This observing position reveals details about the rings and Saturn's atmosphere that cannot be seen in lower solar phase.
One of the Venus and Saturn images being released today is a combination of separate red, green and blue images covering the planet and main rings and processed to produce true color. Last December, a false-color version of the mosaic was released.
Another image, taken in January, captures Venus just beyond the limb of Saturn and in close proximity to Saturn's G ring, a thin ring just beyond the main Saturnian rings. The diffuse E ring, which is outside the G ring and created by the spray of the moon Enceladus, also is visible.
These images can be found at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia14935.html and http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia14936.html .
Venus is, along with Mercury, Earth and Mars, one of the rocky "terrestrial" planets in the solar system that orbit relatively close to the sun. Though Venus has an atmosphere of carbon dioxide that reaches nearly 900 degrees Fahrenheit (500 degrees Celsius) and a surface pressure 100 times that of Earth's, it is considered a twin to our planet because of their similar sizes, masses, rocky compositions and close orbits. It is covered in thick sulfuric acid clouds, making it very bright.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20130304.html