Category Archives: Multiple media

Gas giants Saturn, Jupiter, et al, Multiple media

Saturn: “Dark Moons, Dark Rings”

March 29, 2016 TopSpacer

Great image from the Cassini probe of two moons above Saturn’s rings:

When taking images in directions opposite from the sun, most objects appear dark. Surprisingly, however, some of Saturn’s rings get brighter.

Parts of Saturn’s main rings appear dark in backlit views, particularly the dense B ring (as can been seen in PIA14934). However, some rings are comparatively tenuous and made up of dust particles that tend to scatter light in roughly the original direction it was traveling. This is called “forward scattering.” Because of forward scattering, rings like the F ring, which encircles the outer edge of the main rings, appear to glow brightly at this large viewing angle.

Two moons hover above the rings from this perspective — Enceladus (313 miles or 504 kilometers across), at left, and Janus (111 miles or 179 kilometers across), at right.

This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 0.5 degrees below the ring plane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 21, 2015.

The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 750,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 136 degrees. Janus’ brightness was enhanced by a factor of two to improve its visibility in this image.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at ciclops.org.

Multiple media, Space Systems, The Moon

“A New Moon Rises” – An exhibition of HD images of the lunar surface

March 22, 2016 TopSpacer

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been circling the Moon since June 2009 and has been imaging the lunar surface at much higher resolution than obtained during previous missions going back to the Apollo era. The images can be quite spectacular and some of the most striking are currently on display in an exhibition called A New Moon Rises at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. Here is a report on the show: Desolate magnificence – The Space Review.

Below is a sampling of the Craters, Vistas, and Major Discoveries on display:

The image below shows “A Very Young Crater” with [spectacular] ejecta surround it. The crater is

about 1,400 meters (4,600 feet) across. Since there are no superimposed impact craters on the ejecta, and the delicate lacy impact spray is still preserved near the rim, this crater formed very recently, perhaps sometime in the past few thousand years.

Below are two “Copernican Craters” that have

… large, spectacular ejecta patterns of bright material thrown across the Moon’s surface. These craters are no more than 1 billion years old—”Copernican age” in the lunar geologic timescale. Because they are so bright and have few impact craters on them, they may be as young as a few million years. Each is incredibly well preserved: crisp crater rims, steep crater walls, and delicate small-scale ejecta patterns. The overhead sunlight highlights the brightness variations.

The lunar feature below is titled, “The Strangest of Swirls”

Reiner Gamma is one of the Moon’s most distinctive and mysterious features. This striking, tadpole-shaped swirl puzzles lunar scientists. Some think that its origin, as with other swirls, is somehow related to the shielding effects of localized magnetic field anomalies.

The images below

…, taken at different times, reveal that a cave extends at least 25 meters (82 feet) under the surface of the Moon. Collapse pits, where the near-surface lunar crust has caved in, can provide a window into the shallow subsurface. Image IDs: M126710873R, M155016845R, M152662021R

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Here is an entertaining video about how the LRO is operated:

Eyes in the Sky, Living in Space, Multiple media

Video: ‘On the shoulders of giants’ – Tim Peake’s Principia mission on the ISS

March 20, 2016 TopSpacer 1 Comment

A nicely made video of highlights of UK astronaut Tim Peake’s mission on the Int. Space Station with beautiful imagery of the earth:

From the caption:

“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants” is the famous quote by renowned scientist Sir Isaac Newton. This is particularly apt as a title for this video summary of ESA astronaut Tim Peake’s Principia mission – named after Newton’s monumental work Philosophiae Naturalis Principia and now building on the work of previous European astronaut missions, while being supported by a huge team of scientists and engineers on the ground.

The music accompanying this video was chosen by Tim, coming from the soundtrack of one of his favourite films, the 2004 movie Layer Cake. This piece is called ‘Drive to the Boatyard’, by internationally known British film composer Ilan Eshkeri. Ilan provided a slightly extended piece specially for ESA.

Tim comments: “I’m delighted with this video, which captures the essence of human spaceflight and natural beauty of our planet from space – all put to Ilan’s inspiring soundtrack!”

More info on Principia: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Hum…

More about Ilan Eshkeri: http://www.ilaneshkeri.com/

Music by I. Eshkeri, © Ole Colorful Drawings Music Inc. administered by SonyATV Music Publishing

Mars, Multiple media, Space Science

Video: Curiosity rover’s panoramic view of the Namib Dune on Mars

February 8, 2016 TopSpacer

Drag the cursor on this image to see the 360 degree view of the Namib Dune on Mars where the Curiosity rover was exploring in December:

Full-Circle Panorama Beside ‘Namib Dune’ on Mars

This view of the downwind face of “Namib Dune” on Mars covers 360 degrees, including a portion of Mount Sharp on the horizon. The site is part of the dark-sand “Bagnold Dunes” field along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp. Images taken from orbit indicate that dunes in the Bagnold field move as much as about 3 feet (1 meter) per Earth year.

The component images of this scene were taken on Dec. 18, 2015, by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover during the 1,197th Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s work on Mars.

The bottom of the dune nearest the rover is about 23 feet (7 meters) from the camera. This downwind face of the dune rises at an inclination of about 28 degrees to a height of about 16 feet (5 meters) above the base. The center of the scene is toward the east; both ends are toward the west.

A color adjustment has been made approximating a white balance, so that rocks and sand appear approximately as they would appear under Earth’s sunlit sky. A brightness adjustment accommodates including rover hardware in the scene.

The mission’s examination of dunes in the Bagnold field, along the rover’s route up the lower slope of Mount Sharp, is the first close look at active sand dunes anywhere other than Earth.

Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the rover’s Mastcam. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project’s Curiosity rover.

For more information about Curiosity, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/.

Photojournal Note: Also available is the full resolution TIFF file PIA20284_full.tif. This file may be too large to view from a browser; it can be downloaded onto your desktop by right-clicking on the previous link and viewed with image viewing software.