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Notes from Titan talks at the 2012 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC)
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/03/20 02:16 CDT
One of the topics I found most exciting yesterday was a series of talks on Titan's climate. Bob West showed how Titan's detached haze has shifted with time. Zibi Turtle presented about how Titan's weather has changed with these seasonal changes. Jason Barnes followed up Zibi's talk -- which was based on Cassini camera images -- with a study of the same regions using data from Cassini's imaging spectrometer, trying to figure out what was going on with that brightening. Ralph Lorenz talked about rainfall rates on Titan. Jeff Moore asked: what if Titan hasn't always had a thick atmosphere?
Pretty picture: A study in ringlight
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/03/08 02:27 CST
Clearly, this is Saturn, and its rings, and if you look closer you can see a tiny circle, on top of the rings, which is Mimas, and two stars in the background. It should look weird to you that while the rings are bright, Mimas is a black dot. What is happening here? Nearly everything in this picture is lit by light that has not arrived directly from the Sun.
Pretty picture: Enceladus, in lovely color
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/02/06 02:38 CST
Here's an awesome picture to start off the week. The data came from Cassini's flyby of Enceladus on January 31, 2011; it was part of Cassini's January 2012 data release.�
Pretty pictures from Cassini's recent Dione flyby
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/12/22 11:52 CST
Cassini flew close by Dione on December 12 and, as usual, the close pass provided opportunities for lots of dramatic photos, not just of Dione, but of other moons wandering by in the background.
More radar images of icy moons from Cassini: Iapetus, Enceladus, and Rhea
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/12/21 12:10 CST
When I posted about the really cool Cassini SAR images of Enceladus a few weeks ago, I initially wrote that this was the first-ever SAR image of an icy moon other than Titan. Several people (some readers and two members of the Cassini science team!) corrected that statement: Cassini has performed SAR imaging of other icy moons (including Enceladus) before.
Pretty picture: Mimas scuttles behind Dione
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/12/12 06:36 CST
Images from the Cassini spacecraft's flyby of Dione.
First-ever high-resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar image of Enceladus
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/12/01 07:22 CST
On the November 6, 2011 flyby of Enceladus -- the third such flyby in just a few weeks -- the Cassini mission elected to take a SAR swath instead of using the optical instruments for once. So here it is: the first-ever SAR swath on Enceladus. In fact, the only other places we've ever done SAR imaging are Earth, the Moon, Venus, Iapetus, and Titan.
Saturnlit moon, sunlit fountains
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/10/07 06:00 CDT
Saturnlit moon, sunlit fountains
Notes from Day 5 of the EPSC/DPS meeting: Saturn's storm, Phobos, and Lutetia
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/10/07 07:09 CDT
Notes from Day 5 of the EPSC/DPS meeting: Saturn's storm, Phobos, and Lutetia
Pretty pictures: Dancing moons
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/09/28 12:28 CDT
Pretty pictures: Dancing moons
Tethys and Dione don't seem to be active after all
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/09/23 01:09 CDT
Tethys and Dione don't seem to be active after all
Titan crater and programming note
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/09/02 11:58 CDT
Titan crater and programming note
Pretty picture: Saturn from very close up
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/08/24 05:13 CDT
Pretty picture: Saturn from very close up
Pretty picture: five moons for Cassini
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/08/03 09:57 CDT
Explaining how to combine the red, green and blue images from a recent Cassini image session containing five of Saturn's moons: Janus, Pandora, Enceladus, Mimas and Rhea.
Cassini animations: Rhea and Dione and Titan
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/06/28 04:12 CDT
I've been mucking about in the Cassini data archives (as I often do when procrastinating) and unearthed a neat, if short, mutual event sequence of two crescent moons passing by each other.
Cassini finally catches Helene
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/06/20 04:41 CDT
Cassini finally catches Helene
Watch Saturn's storms spin with VIMS
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/04/28 01:15 CDT
A lot of attention has been paid recently to a storm in Saturn's northern hemisphere that is large and bright enough to be visible from Earth, but Saturn's atmosphere actually features lots more swirling storms. They can be hard to see, at least in visible wavelengths.
Outside scientists being invited in to Cassini mission
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/04/20 10:09 CDT
NASA announced last week the start of a Participating Scientist program for Cassini, which is big news, for outer planets scientists anyway. Lots and lots of other missions have participating scientist programs, from big missions like Mars Science Laboratory to little ones like Dawn; but this is the first time for Cassini, which is kind of surprising given that it's been almost seven years since it arrived at Saturn.
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