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explanation: this image of saturn could not have been taken from earth. no earth based picture could possibly view the night side of saturn and the corresponding shadow cast across saturn's rings. since earth is much closer to the sun than saturn, only the day side of the planet is visible from the earth. in fact, this image mosaic was taken in january by the robotic cassini spacecraft now orbiting saturn. the beautiful rings of saturn are seen in full expanse, while cloud details are visible near the night-day terminator divide.
phil plait of bad astronomy blog explains saturn’s rings.
the saturn v was a multi-stage expendable rocket used by nasa's apollo and skylab programs from 1967 until 1973 under the direction of wernher von braun. nasa launched 13 saturn v rockets with no loss of payload. it remains the largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever.
part 2 with its famous rings, saturn is the most distant planet clearly visible to the naked eye. but how did the rings get there and when were they formed? to study the planet in detail, scientists needed to get closer. so on 15 october 1997, the cassini-huygens spacecraft was launched.
this beautiful photo was taken by doug murray of palm beach gardens, florida during the 'eclipse' of saturn by the moon. that's actually saturn there, at 8 o'clock.
one of the most bizarre weather patterns known has been photographed at saturn, where astronomers have spotted a huge, six-sided feature circling the north pole. rather than the normally sinuous cloud structures seen on all planets that have atmospheres, this thing is a hexagon. the honeycomb-like feature has been seen before. nasa's voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft imaged it more than two decades ago. now, having spotted it with the cassini spacecraft, scientists conclude it is a long-lasting oddity.
in this talk, planetary scientist carolyn porco says, "i`m going to take you on a journey." and does she ever. showing breathtaking images from the cassini voyage to saturn, she focuses on saturn`s intriguing largest moon, titan,with deserts, mudflats and puzzling lakes, and on frozen enceladus, which seems to shoot jets of ice.
with its famous rings, saturn is the most distant planet clearly visible to the naked eye. but how did the rings get there and when were they formed? to study the planet in detail, scientists needed to get closer. so on 15 october 1997, the cassini-huygens spacecraft was launched.
saturn hexagon mystifies scientists march 27, 2007 — a long-lived double hexagon formed in the clouds. the two six-sided features — one inside the other — are in stark contrast to the hurricane-like vortex that has been observed at the ringed planet's south pole. both poles have been imaged by nasa's orbiting cassini spacecraft. "we haven't seen a (geometric) feature like this anywhere else on any other planet," said cassini scientist kevin baines of the nasa's jet propulsion laboratory. "it's unbelievable."
discovery.com news march 27, 2008 -- an international spacecraft that dove through geysers erupting from the surface of a saturn moon found organic matter, one of many ingredients that make an environment hospitable to extraterrestrial life, scientists said. the discovery excited mission team members, who say it's a marker for further research into whether the icy satellite enceladus has such an environment. the chemical analysis by the unmanned cassini spacecraft revealed that enceladus' interior was similar to that of a comet. while the jet plumes were mostly water vapor, the probe found traces of methane and simple organic compounds, said hunter waite of the southwest research institute, who is the principal investigator of one of the spacecraft's instruments. "we clearly have the organics and are closing in on the question of liquid water in the interior," waite said. in 2005, cassini spied gigantic geysers spewing from fractures known as tiger stripes on the moon's south pole. scientists theorized that reservoirs of liquid water below the surface were likely supplying the ice and vapor seen in the plumes. the flyby two weeks ago took cassini within 30 miles from the surface of enceladus, the shiniest object in the solar system. during the encounter, the spacecraft barreled through the icy geyser plumes at 32,000 mph and an altitude of 120 miles. detailed heat maps of the lunar surface revealed the south pole is warmer than previously thought. temperature measurements show the region is at least minus 135 degrees fahrenheit -- 63 degrees hotter than previously known. cassini scientist john spencer of the southwest research institute said the high temperatures likely indicate that liquid water may lurk beneath the surface. scientists generally agree the presence of water, organic compounds and a stable heat source are needed to support primitive life. scientists not involved with the mission said while the discovery of organics is important in the search for extraterrestrial life, the fact that they resemble comet material casts doubt on whether liquid water is present. "suppose they had seen complex organics ... that would be interpreted to mean that liquid water was present and that chemical reactions had gone forward toward forming life," said bruce jakosky, an astrobiologist at the university of colorado. "that we don't see those things suggests that liquid water is not abundant or that energy sources are not present," he said.
the george dyson video from 2002`s ted just went live, describing the orion project, a deeply classified space vessel from the atomic age. it was nuclear powered. the size of a marriott hotel and 400 tons. george dyson`s father worked on it, starting in general atomic in 1957. did i mention that scientists from the hydrogen bomb worked on this thing? why? because the nukes weren`t used as fuel like they are at homer simpson`s workplace. they were hoping to smash the atoms and direct the explosions for 20 megatons of lift!
what the rings would look like from different cities and latitudes across the world. it's interesting to imagine how it would effect culture throughout time. it would have influenced religion, mythology, navigation, etc..
new observations by the international cassini spacecraft reveal that saturn's trademark shimmering rings, which have dazzled astronomers since galileo's time, have dramatically changed over just the past 25 years.
among the most surprising findings is that parts of saturn's innermost ring — the d ring — have grown dimmer since the voyager spacecraft flew by the planet in 1981, and a piece of the d ring has moved 125 miles inward toward saturn.
while scientists puzzle over what caused the changes, their observations could reveal something about the age and lifetime of the rings.
cassini-related discoveries were discussed monday at a meeting of the american astronomical society's division of planetary sciences in cambridge, england.
"i don't think saturn's rings will disappear anytime soon, but this tells us how the rings are evolving and how long they might last, " deputy project scientist linda spilker said in a telephone interview from england.
scientists are interested in saturn's rings because they are a model of the disk of gas and dust that initially surrounded the sun. studying them could yield important clues about how the planets formed from that disc 4.5 billion years ago.
the ring observations were made this summer. the $3.3 billion cassini mission, funded by nasa and the european and italian space agencies, was launched in 1997. cassini is managed by nasa's jet propulsion laboratory in pasadena.
yahoo
orion was 1950`s project to study the possibility of a spacecraft powered by nuclear pulse propulsion. the design would have worked by ejecting nuclear weapons from the rear of a vehicle, detonating them, and catching the blast with a shock absorber equipped pusher plate. this sequence would be repeated thousands of times, in effect an atomic pogo stick. the project was scrapped in 1965 amid fear about fallout both political and radiological. footage shown is of scale testing done using conventional explosives. check this video out too.
that blue ring surrounding the edge is really something.
