The Dew Drop of Saturn
The water-world Enceladus appears here to sit atop Saturn's rings like a drop of dew upon a leaf. Even though it appears like a tiny drop before the might of the giant Saturn, Enceladus reminds us that even small worlds hold mysteries and wonders to be explored.
By most predictions prior to Cassini's arrival at Saturn, a moon the size of Enceladus (313 miles, 504 kilometers across) would have been expected to be a dead, frozen world. But Enceladus displays remarkable geologic activity, as evidenced by the plume emanating from its southern polar regions and its global, subsurface ocean. (For a closer look at individual jets that contribute to the plume, see PIA11688; for more on the subsurface ocean seePIA19656.) The plume, which was discovered in Cassini images, is comprised mostly of water vapor and contain entrained dust particles.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 0.3 degrees below the ring plane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on May 25, 2015 using a spectral filter which preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 728 nanometers.
The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Saturn. Image scale is 54 miles (87 kilometers) per pixel.
The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Last Updated: May 2, 2016
Editor: Tony Greicius
Y Marks the Spot
A sinuous feature snakes northward from Enceladus' south pole like a giant tentacle. This feature, which stretches from the terminator near center, toward upper left, is actually tectonic in nature, created by stresses in Enceladus' icy shell.
Geologists call features like these on Enceladus (313 miles or 504 kilometers across) "Y-shaped discontinuities." These are thought to arise when surface material attempts to push northward, compressing or displacing existing ice along the way. Such features are also believed to be relatively young based on their lack of impact craters -- a reminder of how surprisingly geologically active Enceladus is.
This view looks towards the trailing hemisphere of Enceladus. North is up. The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 15, 2016.
The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 60,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) from Enceladus. Image scale is 1,900 feet (580 meters) per pixel.
The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Last Updated: April 18, 2016
Editor: Tony Greicius
Dark Moons, Dark Rings
When taking images in directions opposite from the sun, most objects appear dark. Surprisingly, however, some of Saturn's rings get brighter.
Parts of Saturn's main rings appear dark in backlit views, particularly the dense B ring (as can been seen in PIA14934). However, some rings are comparatively tenuous and made up of dust particles that tend to scatter light in roughly the original direction it was traveling. This is called "forward scattering." Because of forward scattering, rings like the F ring, which encircles the outer edge of the main rings, appear to glow brightly at this large viewing angle.
Two moons hover above the rings from this perspective -- Enceladus (313 miles or 504 kilometers across), at left, and Janus (111 miles or 179 kilometers across), at right.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 0.5 degrees below the ring plane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 21, 2015.
The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 750,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 136 degrees. Janus' brightness was enhanced by a factor of two to improve its visibility in this image.
The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Last Updated: March 28, 2016
Editor: Martin Perez
el dispensador dice: sí, ya te habrás dado cuenta... los extraplanetarios andamos de paso, observando a una humanidad que así como te gratifica, muchas veces y no pocas, te enerva... Saturno es un sistema dentro de otro sistema, repleto de vida que nadie detecta, porque cuando se utilizan los ojos, lo esencial no se ve, no se estima, no se percibe, ni siquiera se intuye, porque lo que abunda es la soberbia y la consiguiente necedad que por sí misma, no acepta... no obstante ello, cae rocío sobre todo el sistema... y así como abunda el agua... hay un modelo de vidas que va rebotando sin penas... pero eso sólo sucede, porque en Saturno no hay codicia, tampoco avaricia, ni angurria, mucho menos soberbia... porque además de anillos, el ejemplo está envuelto en sapiencias, que siguen de cerca al humano, a quien reconocen por sus palabras y porque sus hechos contienen a una raza que se condena... a veces por desprecio, otras por intolerancias, otras porque desbordan excusas a las que se aferran... donde hay vacíos, después de todo, el rocío no llega...
los saturninos han pasado alguna vez por la Tierra, pero han huido espantados por conductas que aterran, y no han sido los únicos en tomar distancia de la desidia que llena... la vida es una gracia que se honra cuando el pan se comparte y el futuro se teje al tiempo que desvela... claro está, aquí reinan las creencias... esas, justamente, que son las que atrasan y alejan...
la Tierra está envuelta... en humanismos que se desgranan mientras la humanidad se desintegra, y de tanto, hasta podría decirte que está enferma... algunos tratando de sobrevivir, mientras unos pocos, demasiado escasos para ser número, te usan y te condenan... dejando en claro que algo hay en este planeta, que intoxica y envenena... no sólo el cuerpo, sino el alma que se queda sin consciencia... ¿estás tu entre ellos?... seguramente no, porque buscas estas páginas para que te liberen de la rutina que atropella... seguramente no, porque sientes que estas letras te sueltan, y al mismo te rebelan...
el rocío no cae cuando el humanismo no conecta... y hoy sobran las mentiras, esas que desprecian...
el rocío no cae cuando imperan las monedas... lo que se compra y se vende, alimenta las basuras que en el espíritu resuenan...
por eso te enseño Saturno... para que sepas... que hay mundos donde los sentidos se respetan, aún cuando el hombre los crea vacíos, de personas y existencias... en general en los universos, lo que vive no se piensa... existir es un instante... lo demás... sin paz, indica que es imposible la paciencia, y donde ella no está... avanza la zozobra, acompañada de la impaciencia, esa misma que conduce, a que jamás se tome consciencia. MAYO 02, 2016.-
cuando el rocío no te bendice... el vínculo no induce.
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