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Opportunity's poking at Marquette Island; Cassini's catching dancing moons
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2009/11/18 04:58 CST
Cassini RADAR continues to gaze at Titan
Posted by Jani Radebaugh on 2009/07/27 07:08 CDT
The Cassini spacecraft made its 59th flyby of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, on Friday, July 24, and in the last few hours we have received images from the RADAR instrument in SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) mode.
Posted by John Smith on 2009/06/07 12:01 CDT
Each Titan flyby is not a fork in the road, but rather a Los Angeles style cloverleaf in terms of the dizzying number of possible destinations. So how did our current and future plans for the path of the Cassini spacecraft come to be? That's the question Dave Seal put to me since that's my job -- I am a tour designer.
Posted by David Seal on 2009/06/04 06:31 CDT
Saturn is rapidly approaching equinox, where the Sun passes through the ring plane (south-to-north, i.e. the northern vernal equinox), and its ring system (i.e. its great now-gloomy poorly-lit circles of large blocks of water ice) is starting to show some really interesting behavior.
Canto II: Titan's Atmosphere and the Solar Cycle
Posted by David Seal on 2009/06/03 04:44 CDT
David Seal explains the complications for Cassini coming from Titan's atmosphere and Solar Cycle.
Posted by David Seal on 2009/06/02 01:58 CDT
David Seal muses on his time as the mission planner for Cassini, and the history behind its name, and astronomy in Rome.
Exciting Times Ahead: 2010 Will Sizzle, and 2011 Will Really Cook!
Posted by Alan Stern on 2009/05/18 03:56 CDT
Today, I'm kicking the week off with a look at the unusually intense confluence of far flung planetary exploration that's just around the corner, starting the middle of next year.
John Spencer: Cassini's proposed extended-extended mission tour
Posted by John Spencer on 2009/02/24 02:58 CST
John Spencer: Cassini's proposed extended-extended mission tour
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2008/12/31 06:17 CST
A very pretty picture of a moon among stars. Happy 2009, everyone!
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2008/02/19 04:40 CST
There was a press release from the Cassini mission today about a pile of papers (14 of them!) being published in the journal Icarus about Saturn's icy moons. I haven't had time to read more than the overview article yet, but I wanted to come up with a graphic for an overview of Saturn's moons, and I couldn't resist delving into the massive database of Cassini images to produce something new
A way-cool Cassini picture: rings, Titan, Dione, Prometheus
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2005/10/19 07:12 CDT
I just noticed this picture on the Cassini raw images website. I love these "many worlds" pictures.
Animation from Cassini's approach to Dione
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2005/10/12 09:01 CDT
The images from Cassini's Dione encounter yesterday have started coming back, and there is a really cool set of 16 pictures of Dione and Rhea.
A new Cassini data release to the Planetary Data System
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2005/10/06 09:29 CDT
Yesterday, this quarter's release of Cassini data showed up at the Planetary Data System (PDS). The PDS is the public repository for all of NASA's data.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2005/10/01 11:11 CDT
I've finally worked my way through all of the Hyperion images that were returned from the last flyby. It's a wonderful data set.
A couple of pretty Cassini photos from this week
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2005/08/20 09:06 CDT
First, here's a nice shot of Epimetheus, which was taken about a month ago.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2005/08/18 08:35 CDT
Checking the Cassini raw images website, I found quite a few more images of Hyperion this morning. It looks like Cassini had a leisurely flyby of the little moon from roughly 700,000 kilometers' distance.
A couple cool raw Cassini pics -- and a break in the data
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2005/07/19 04:56 CDT
I monitor the Cassini website to keep my eye out for cool pictures, and it's usually relatively easy to figure out what the spacecraft is looking at (rings, moon, Saturn, whatever). Sometimes, though, the images can be very confusing.
A change of plans for Cassini: higher altitude for the "T7" Titan flyby
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2005/07/15 01:00 CDT
The June 15 Cassini Project Update includes a note about a difficult decision -- they are raising the altitude of an upcoming Titan flyby, "T7," which is scheduled for September 7.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2005/07/01 04:07 CDT
In the midst of all this hoopla about Deep Impact, I haven't been able to give the proper attention to Cassini, which began its second year of operations at Saturn today.
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