You need to upgrade your Flash Player The theme of this blog is not only and obviously space, but in particular “terrestrial worlds”, places that tend to have surfaces on which one could walk or at least attach oneself to. These places sometimes also have other earth-like familiar features such as atmospheres, weather, volcanos, geysers and perhaps, we are finding, even exotic oceans, rivers or lakes that are not necessarily made of familiar materials we are used to here at home. The second theme is imagery. Occasionally I do some retouching of images when needed if an image is incomplete or sometimes “dirty” or noisy. I will attempt to correct image shortcomings based upon other images or well-accepted presumed attributes. When this is done, notes will be offered as to what was added, why and sometimes how it was done. This way no one should ever wonder if something they are looking at is real or photoshop.

Archive for the 'Saturn' Category

Outer Space Art Film Uses Only Raw Images

Thursday, May 9th, 2013

Outer Space from Sander van den Berg on Vimeo.

The Hexagonal Saturn Storm

Wednesday, January 30th, 2013

This is a raw image of the storm found at the center of Saturn’s hexagonal feature located at it’s northern pole (see below). Be sure to click on it for the high-res.

The image is going to be “officially released” soon, but I don’t know how much better it can get than this. One of the exciting things about this storm is the depth that we are allowed to see into Saturn. There is no other feature on Saturn that allows us to see any further than the cloud tops.

Saturnati XXIV

Tuesday, January 8th, 2013

This is the best image of the mission with Saturn and Titan together in one shot.

Best of G. Ugarkovic (Last 8 Months)

Saturday, November 17th, 2012

If you follow this blog on any basis, you might be well aware that a good percentage of the imagery is provided by our good flickr friend Gordan Ugarkovic. Here is a bit of what we missed from him in the last 10 months we were locked out.

Titan at the edge of Saturn taken 2011-05-21. Looks unreal. Like Titan was dropped into the scene using Photoshop. A sin I would never commit. See the lesser “official” NASA version released a few months back here.

Keeping with the theme of moons transiting Saturn. Here is Rhea and tiny Epimetheus doing what they do. Taken in 2010-03-24.

Finally, just to change it up… two moons against Titan, another of Saturn’s moons. Pictured above the Titanian cloud-tops is Dione on the left and Rhea on the right.

Saturn’s Five

Wednesday, November 14th, 2012

Space enthusiasts seem to really like shots that have more than one body in the same frame. How about five… or six (if you count the rings of Saturn)? Starting left to right that is Janus, Pandora, Enceladus, Mimas and Rhea.

Thanks again to Gordan Ugarkovic.

Titan’s Polar Vortex

Sunday, November 4th, 2012

Titan

Only a true lover of planetary exploration can get excited about an image like this. Titan is definitely one of the most exciting places in the solar system despite it’s almost total lack of discernible details either surface or in cloud structure. So like Uranus and Venus most images of these locales look something like smooth monochromatic tennis balls without the white lines.

Titan’s polar vortex in color

Above is a color image of the vortex in more detail. Scientists are still unsure of the process that causes this to occur. However, similar phenomenon have been seen before — most notably on Titan’s parent planet, Saturn.

Enceladus in Saturnshine

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

Ian Regan’s composite of the recent Enceladus flyby. Best yet image I have seen of Enceladus lit both by sunshine and light reflected off Saturn (aka Saturnshine).

Also the Gordan Ugarkovic image. Note the spewing geysers on the lower left.

Titan and Friends

Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

Titan and friends from recent official Cassini mission releases.

Titan and Saturn

Shown with Saturn

Titan and Dione

Shown with Dione against a Saturn and rings nearly edge-on in the background. Looks like a NASA re-interpretation of this image.

Titan and Tethys

With Tethys against more edge-on rings.

Best Color Image or Geysers on Enceladus

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

Geysers on Enceladus
Brought (as always) to us from Gordan Ugarkovic.

You Are the Center of the Solar System

Friday, November 4th, 2011

You Are The Sun is the latest space themed tee by Chop Shop Store. Following on iconic tees that collected various deep space missions and historic Earth orbit missions, this new design draws a new picture of The Solar System as we know it today, complete with Carl Sagan’s pale blue dot.

With your head as a stand-in for The Sun — the tee includes all 8 planets, 7 major moons, The Asteroid Belt and even details little Pluto lost among countless Kuiper Belt objects. We are now providing yet another link here to get it for Men on American Apparel 2001 or Tultex tees and for Women on American Apparel 2102 tees.

Dione and Saturn

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

And a tiny little “ring shepherd” moon can be seen directly above/left of Dione.

Another Dark Side of Titan

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

By Gordan Ugarkovic

Saturn Cloudtops and The Fountains of Enceladus

Sunday, July 17th, 2011

Wow. That is quite a mutual event. Saturn crescent haze about as dramatic as it is ever seen by Cassini but with the addition of an active Enceladus hanging above at such a scale is quite unreal. Color by Gordan Ugarkovic.

Saturn Portrait Rings Unlit

Thursday, July 14th, 2011

We have had our share of global Saturn portraits, but I do believe this is the first taken where the rings are unlit by the sun. An interesting alternate view provided by Gordan Ugarkovic (as usual).

Helene Offers a New Mystery

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

The tiny moon Helene seems to be experiencing some kind of erosion based on new hires images acquired by the Cassini mission in orbit around Saturn. If this is true, this would be quite a mystery considering the moon’s tiny mass and almost total lack of any gravitational ability to shape it’s own surface. Surely this must be coming from external forces such as ring particles being dumped on the surface in one area and then slowly being shaken downslope by small impacts over a very long time. Maybe?

Another color composite by Gordan Ugarkovic.

And a bonus Helene crescent image with posterization effects removed by Wanderingspace.