NASA, together with Jet Propulsion, launched the Cassino-Huygens mission, which has allowed them to collect images of the outer solar system. The images show Saturn and Earth. These photographs, in addition to revealing previously unknown information, also marked a turning point in the study and research of space. Europa Clipper will therefore focus on continuing research around Jupiter and the icy moon Europa. Read on for all the information surrounding this milestone and space exploration.
A rare opportunity to image Saturn
On July 19, 2013, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft had a unusual chance to picture Saturn and, far in the background, Earth. This image distance about 404,880 miles (651,591 kilometers) across. With the Sun’s powerful and potentially damaging rays eclipsed by Saturn itself, Cassini’s onboard cameras were capable of taking advantage of this special viewing geometry. They obtained a panoramic mosaic of the Saturn system that permits scientists to notice details in the rings and throughout the system as they are backlit by the sun. This mosaic is unique as it marks the third time our home planet was pictured from the outer solar system; the second time it was imaged by Cassini from Saturn’s orbit; and the first time ever that citizents of Earth were made aware previously that their photo would be taken from such a great distance.
Cassini was capable of capturing 323 images in just over four hours. This final mosaic applies 141 of those wide-angle images. Images taken using the red, green and blue spectral filters of the wide-angle camera were joined and mosaicked at once to create this natural-color perspective.
Where core’s Saturn’s E ring is located
The outermost ring proved that here is Saturn’s E ring, the core of which is located about 149,000 miles (240,000 kilometers) from Saturn. The geysers irrumpting from the south polar terrain of the moon Enceladus supply the fine icy particles that comprise the E ring; diffraction by sunlight apports the ring its blue color. Enceladus (313 miles, or 504 kilometers, across) and the extended plume created by its jets are visible, embedded in the E ring on the left side of the mosaic.
At the 12 o’clock position and a bit inward from the E ring lies the hardly discernible ring created by the tiny, Cassini-discovered moon, Pallene (3 miles, or 4 kilometers, across). (For more on structures like Pallene’s ring, look at PIA08328). The following narrow and easily seen ring inward is the G ring. Interior to the G ring, close to the 11 o’clock position, one can almost see the more disperse ring created by the co-orbital moons, Janus (111 miles, or 179 kilometers, across) and Epimetheus (70 miles, or 113 kilometers, across). Farther inward, we see the very bright F ring closely encircling the head rings of Saturn.
Which moons are also visible near Saturn
The moons Prometheus, Pandora, Janus and Epimetheus are also able to see in the mosaic near Saturn’s bright narrow F ring. Prometheus (53 miles, or 86 kilometers, across) is visible as a faint black dot just inside the F ring and at the 9 o’clock position. On the contrary side of the rings, just outside the F ring, Pandora (50 miles, or 81 kilometers, across) can be seen as a bright white dot. Pandora and Prometheus are shepherd moons and gravitational interactions between the ring and the moons keep the F ring narrowly restricted. At the 11 o’clock location among the F ring and the G ring, Janus (111 miles, or 179 kilometers, across) appears as a faint black dot. Janus and Prometheus are dark for the same reason Mimas is mostly dark: we are starring at their non-illuminated sides in this mosaic. In the middle between the F ring and the G ring, at about the 8 o’clock position, is a single bright pixel, Epimetheus. Looking more up clase at Enceladus, Mimas and Tethys, especially in the clear up version of the mosaic, one can view these moons casting shadows through the E ring like a telephone pole might cast a shadow through a fog.
In the non-brightened version of the mosaic, one can see bright clumps of ring material orbiting within the Encke hole close to the outer edge of the principal rings and immediately to the lower left of the globe of Saturn. In addition, in the dark B ring within the main rings, at the 9 o’clock position, one can see the faint outlines of two spoke features, first sighted by NASA’s Voyager spacecraft in the early 1980s and extensively studied by Cassini.
At the end, in the lower right of the mosaic, in between the bright blue E ring and the faint but delimited G ring, is the pale blue dot of our planet, Earth. Take a close lookvand you can see the moon protruding from the Earth’s lower right. (For a higher resolution view of the Earth and moon taken during this campaign, see PIA14949.)
809 background stars are visible and were brightened
For repose of visibility, Earth, Venus, Mars, Enceladus, Epimetheus and Pandora were all brightened by a factor of eight and a half relative to Saturn. Tethys was lightened by a factor of four. In total, 809 background stars are noticeable and were lightened by a component ranging from six, for the brightest stars, to 16, for the faintest. The faint outer rings (from the G ring to the E ring) were also lightened relative to the already bright main rings by factors ranging from two to eight, with the lower-phase-angle areas of these rings lightened the most.
Some ring characteristics– such as full rings traced out by tiny moons — do not emerge in this version of the mosaic due to their extreme computer enhancemen requirement, which would adversely affect the rest of the mosaic. This version was processed for balance and beauty.
What is the mision’s purpose?
The Cassini-Huygens purpose is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, leads the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were planned, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.