Planetary scientist Carolyn Porco says, "I'm going to take you on a journey." And does she ever. Showing breathtaking images from the Cassini voyage to Saturn, she focuses on Saturn's intriguing largest moon, Titan,with deserts, mudflats and puzzling lakes, and on frozen Enceladus, which seems to shoot jets of ice.
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This sweeping mosaic of Saturn's moon Enceladus provides broad regional context for the ultra-sharp, close-up views NASA's Cassini spacecraft acquired minutes earlier, during its flyby on Aug. 11, 2008. See PIA11114 and PIA11113 for the higher resolution views.
This false-color mosaic combines…
"Aha! That satellite was scuttled on Enceladus, Saturn's main dump moon!" -Professor Farnsworth, Futurama
When you think about life beyond Earth, you likely think of it occurring on a somewhat Earth-like planet. A rocky world, with either a past or present liquid ocean atop the surface, seems ideal…
Neat.
One of the moons of Saturn, Enceladus, has cracks and eruptions that couldn't be explained by heat. (It is much too small to have volcanic actiivty.) They think that the cracks might be caused by tidal forces from Saturn's gravity:
In 2005, the Cassini spacecraft flew by Enceladus and saw…
"Being a scientist and staring immensity and eternity in the face every day is as grand and inspiring as it gets." -Carolyn Porco
Launched back in October of 1997, Cassini will take its final plunge into the ringed world it’s been orbiting for over a decade on Friday, September 15th. Before it does…
I can never watch this without getting tears in my eyes.
You're not the only one, Prazzie.
Thank you, Greg, and
thank you, Carolyn and team.
Anybody got a url for that last image? The one they did _not_, for some unfathomable reason, show properly? I thought I had already seen the Earth image, but not with the brilliance of what was hinted at there.
Thanks to everyone involved, especially Carolyn and team. This was such an important event for me too, so much that when we unexpectedly acquired a rescue cat on the day of the launch I just had to name him Cassini.