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Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/04/19 01:03 CDT
Some recent photos that Cassini took from a position nearly in Saturn's shadow caught my eye, and I made a quick color composite. What an amazing view this would be if you were riding on the spacecraft!
365 Days of Astronomy Podcast: What's up in the second quarter of 2011
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/04/07 11:16 CDT
Regular readers of this blog will find the content of today's 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast familiar, because it's an update on what the solar system exploration spacecraft are up to, based on my monthly "what's up" updates.
What's up in the solar system in April 2011
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/03/31 03:59 CDT
April 2011 will see MESSENGER begin the science phase of its orbital mission at Mercury, and should, I think, also see the start of Dawn's approach observations of Vesta. At Mars, Opportunity is back on the road again, rolling inexorably toward Endeavour. At Saturn, Cassini will continue its focus on Saturn and Titan science.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/03/22 04:40 CDT
Last week, Zibi Turtle and Jason Perry and a dozen other coauthors published a paper in Science discussing evidence for rain on Titan.
LPSC 2011: Day 4: Ted Stryk on icy moons and The Moon
Posted by Ted Stryk on 2011/03/17 11:22 CDT
Here are Ted Stryk's notes from the sessions he attended in the afternoon of Thursday, March 10, at the 42nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/03/08 10:46 CST
To relieve this week's text-heavy LPSC posts, here's a brief one on an incredible panorama across Saturn's northern storm, taken on February 26 by Cassini and assembled by unmannedspaceflight.com member "Astro0."
What's up in the solar system in March 2011
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/02/28 02:43 CST
I don't think there's any question what the big event of this month will be: MESSENGER is finally, finally entering orbit at Mercury on March 18 at 00:45 UTC (March 17 at 16:45 for me).
Some recent pictures of Saturn's northern storm
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/02/07 04:35 CST
There is a huge storm that's spreading across so much of Saturn that it's been readily visible even from Earth-based telescopes. Over the past couple of days a couple of new images of Saturn have appeared that show just how enormous the storm is today.
Two fine color Cassini animations: Prometheus rotating, Tethys and Dione dancing
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/01/20 11:23 CST
Daniel Macháček has reached into the dark side of Prometheus and pulled out an incredible amount of detail where the potato-shaped moon is illuminated by Saturnshine. He produced an animation that morphs among the three sets of four-filter color images that Cassini snapped during the flyby.
Goodies from the January 11 Rhea flyby
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/01/12 10:44 CST
Cassini got some incredibly tricky shots during its January 11 Rhea flyby!
Titan and Dione: The same, but different
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/04/22 05:29 CDT
Here's a new lovely color composition of Titan and Dione captured by Cassini. This one was taken on April 20, 2010; a set of 15 raw images taken of the two moons just showed up on the Cassini raw images website.
Cassini Aegaeon and Prometheus awesomeness
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/01/28 12:38 CST
There were many, many treats waiting on the Cassini raw images website this morning. Yesterday, Cassini traversed the G ring, taking photos all the way.
Figuring out the shape of Mars (and other places)
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/01/19 01:31 CST
An amateur named Bernhard Braun ("nirgal" on unmannedspaceflight) has been posting the results from a new piece of software he's developed that generates 3-D models of landscapes from single photos.
Highlights from the January 1, 2010 Cassini imaging data release
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/01/13 03:43 CST
The January 1, 2010 Cassini imaging data release includes everything acquired by Cassini from January 1 to March 30, 2009 in all its high-quality glory.
What's up in the solar system in January 2010
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/01/04 01:29 CST
While we don't have Moon bases, we do have plenty of spacecraft. Before I get into my more detailed look at the activities of the 20-odd spacecraft wandering about the solar system, I thought I'd look ahead to 2010 more generally and see what the year has in store for us.
Saturn's aurora, even better than before
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2009/11/24 03:35 CST
Two more awesome pictures from the Enceladus flyby
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2009/11/22 05:54 CST
Prepare for your jaw to hit the floor when you see these pictures of Enceladus
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2009/11/21 10:26 CST
Space Imaging II: Getting Started with MER and Cassini Raw Images now available for download
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2009/11/19 02:49 CST
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