May 9, 2017: NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured this view of bands of bright, feathery methane clouds drifting across Saturn’s moon Titan on May 7, 2017.
The view was obtained during a distant (non-targeted) flyby, during which Cassini passed 303,000 miles (488,000 kilometers) above the moon’s surface. Although Cassini will have no further close, targeted flybys of Titan, the spacecraft continues to observe the giant moon and its atmosphere from a distance.
The dark regions at top are Titan’s hydrocarbon lakes and seas.
Two versions of this image are presented here, one with stronger enhancement (figure A) and one with much softer enhancement (figure B). See Titan’s Northern Summer Clouds for another view of these clouds.
The image was taken on May 7, 2017, at a distance of 316,000 miles (508,000 kilometers). The view is an orthographic projection centered on 57 degrees north latitude, 48 degrees west longitude. An orthographic view is most like the view seen by a distant observer. Image scale is about 2 miles (3 kilometers) per pixel.
As summer approaches in Titan’s northern hemisphere, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has been monitoring Titan, anticipating an increase in cloud activity at high northern latitudes. [Larger version]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 Caltech in Pasadena, California, 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.
This enhanced color view of Jupiter’s south pole was created by citizen scientist Gabriel Fiset using data from the JunoCam instrument on NASA’s Juno spacecraft. Oval storms dot the cloudscape. Approaching the pole, the organized turbulence of Jupiter’s belts and zones transitions into clusters of unorganized filamentary structures, streams of air that resemble giant tangled strings.
The image was taken on Dec. 11, 2016 at 9:44 a.m. PST (12:44 p.m. EST), from an altitude of about 32,400 miles (52,200 kilometers) above the planet’s beautiful cloud tops.
JunoCam’s raw images are available for the public to peruse and process into image products at: www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam
Saturn’s hexagonal polar jet stream is the shining feature of almost every view of the north polar region of Saturn. The region, in shadow for the first part of the Cassini mission, now enjoys full sunlight, which enables Cassini scientists to directly image it in reflected light.
Although the sunlight falling on the north pole of Saturn is enough to allow us to image and study the region, it does not provide much warmth. In addition to being low in the sky (just like summer at Earth’s poles), the sun is nearly ten times as distant from Saturn as from Earth. This results in the sunlight being only about 1 percent as intense as at our planet.
This view looks toward Saturn from about 31 degrees above the ring plane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Jan. 22, 2017 using a spectral filter which preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 939 nanometers.
The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 560,000 miles (900,000 kilometers) from Saturn. Image scale is 33 miles (54 kilometers) per pixel.
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.
1. Monday, May 8, 2017: 2-3:30 pm PDT (5-6:30 pm EDT, 4-5:30 pm CDT): We welcome back Dr. Mary Lynne Ditmar. Dr. Ditmar will be speaking about deep space exploration and much more.
2. Tuesday, May 9 , 2017: 7-8:30 pm PDT, 10-11:30 pm EDT, 9-10:30 pm CDT: We welcome back Dr. Patrick Collins regarding space tourism and more. Patrick was the first ever Space Show guest, teaches economics in Japan, and we are happy to have him back with us as we celebrate 16 years of The Space Show.
3. Wednesday, May 11, 2016: Pre-recorded with John Batchelor; HOTEL MARS TBD. See website newsletter and upcoming show menu for updates.
The latest episode of TMRO.tv‘s weekly program is now available:
Our planetary communications system was on the fritz this episode and the Earth based interview had some serious connection issues. We have opted to leave the interview intact as-aired but encourage you to hit up https://thomascheneyblog.wordpress.co… for more information on Space Law at the United Nations.
Space news topics:
* Vector Space launches first small rocket
* SpaceShipTwo Completes Feathered Glide Flight
* Cassini finds ring gap emptier than predicted
* Reaction Engines Breaks Ground on New Test Facility
* New survey hints at ancient origin for “Cold Spot” in our Universe
* SOFIA confirms nearby star system is similar to ours
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