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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.
Checking up on Jupiter and Saturn
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/02/10 01:51 CST
It's amateur astronomers, not professionals, who are shouldering the burden of constant monitoring of the weather on Jupiter and Saturn. What's going on these days in the outer solar system?�
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
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
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/05/02 11:26 CDT
Space.com has taken advantage of the infinitely scrollable nature of Web pages to produce a really cool infographic on the scales of orbital distances in the solar system.
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.
Historical PDF: "The Voyager Flights to Jupiter and Saturn"
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/04/20 05:03 CDT
A while ago I posted all 99 issues of the Voyager Mission Status Bulletins in PDF format, and now I have another cool item to add to that collection: NASA EP-191, "The Voyager Flights to Jupiter and Saturn."
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.
Saturn's storm: A quick turnaround from Hubble
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/03/28 04:13 CDT
Saturn's raging northern storm has been watched since it began by amateur astronomers, and now Cassini is getting in to the act too. Presumably once astronomers realized the magnitude of what was going on, some of Earth's great observatories were also occasionally pointed at the ringed planet to watch the storm grow.
LPSC 2011: Wanted: Pioneer 10 & 11 digital data
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/03/11 01:39 CST
This is both a Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) update and a public service announcement. Ted Stryk has been working for years to locate the original Pioneer 10 and 11 image data from the Jupiter and Saturn encounters.
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."
The Solar System from the Inside Out - and the Outside In
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/02/18 02:27 CST
Space probes grant us perspective, the ability to see our place within the vastness of the solar system. But opportunities to see all of the solar system's planets in one observation are rare. In fact, there's only been one opportunity on one mission to see the whole solar system at once, until now.
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.
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!
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.
Saturn's aurora, even better than before
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2009/11/24 03:35 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.
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