You need to upgrade your Flash Player
This is replaced by the Flash content.
Place your alternate content here and users without the Flash plugin or with
Javascript turned off will see this. Content here allows you to leave out
noscript
tags. Include a link to
bypass the detection if you wish.
Archive for the 'Enceladus' Category
Thursday, November 6th, 2008

Sorry for the delay on this one… its remarkably similar to the last close approach images from August. This image, taken from 1,691 kilometers, also shows the areas surrounding the plume sources to be boulder strewn which suggests that occasionally some large sized chunks of internal Enceladus are ejected from within.
This approach and the previous only weeks ago are to be combined as a double research header. This encounter was largely for hi-res imaging while the previous was to “sniff” out the chemical composition of those plumes. The next close encounter (like this) for Enceladus will not be for another year, so lets hope these two encounters give us a clearer picture of what is actually happening inside this small wonder.
Check out this massive composite of the encounter released by JPL:

Posted in Enceladus | No Comments »
Saturday, November 1st, 2008

There was another up-close buzz over the plumes of Enceladus yesterday. Apparently the science team has been mum about the previous close shave a few weeks ago because they want to do a combined press release on both encounters.
The above image taken Oct 28, is a real nice warm up shot taken on its way to the encounter with Dione in the foreground.
Posted in Dione, Enceladus | No Comments »
Sunday, October 12th, 2008

Images should have been out by now, so far only a small hand-ful. As mentioned previously, this was not going to be a image rich encounter.
Posted in Enceladus | 2 Comments »
Friday, October 10th, 2008

Its been a while since I have updated the progress on IMAX in a Basement, which features imagery from the Cassini mission. See youTube for a nice “Problems Solved” video that includes a sweet sweep across what looks like Enceladus toward Saturn.
Posted in Enceladus, Saturn, Video/Movie | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

Tomorrow’s Cassini buzz of Enceladus is closer than ever not only at Enceladus, but at any other body in the Saturnian system. It is to come only 25km from the surface. It is to fly deep into the plumes, but this visit is more about smell than vision. Imagery is not expected to be as impressive as August’s pass despite the close proximity due to the spacecraft‘s instruments concentrating on particles and dust analysis and not pretty pictures.
Posted in Enceladus, news | No Comments »
Saturday, October 4th, 2008

This is a somewhat new view of Enceladus. Most global images we have seen show both the ridges and the cratered areas, whereas this image features almost exclusively the wrinkled terrain. Few craters are visible in this area which suggests that the details of its surface are quite young.
Posted in Enceladus | 5 Comments »
Friday, August 15th, 2008

Here is one of the vents pinpointed by the Cassini team. This was the only one of the four that seemed obvious to me in appearance. There are boulders scattered throughout the area, but you have to note the larger accumulation of boulders here at the center of this image where one of the 4 vents were revealed. It is conceivable that larger chunks of material (as well as fine particles) could potentially have been spewed from these vents occasionally or perhaps thousands of years ago… or both.
See this and all the other located vents of Baghdad / Cairo Sulci and of Damascus Sulcus at the Cyclops Cassini Imaging site.
Posted in Enceladus | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008

On Cassini’s close shave of Enceladus it captured and image of what seems to be a strange tall mound of something at middle right. Look at how long a shadow it casts.
This is also in semi-false/true color using infrared, green and ultraviolet for RGB. Can you tell from its richness of color?!
Posted in Enceladus, news | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008

I am no scientist, but I would think that the wispy soft lines billowing from this fracture on Enceladus are the famed geysers we have seen so much of from a distance (see the upper right side of the fracture in particular). The geysers have been easily seen from more distant and back-lit images taken of Enceladus, and we know this area being imaged is the source. So wouldn’t it be fairly safe to assume that it is happening in several of these frames?
It may just be that the particles are too fine to be seen at this distance. Consider that they previously have only visible at greater distances when the plumes are back-lit in low-light situations. Seeing this activity from this distance may be kind of like trying to see a cloud when you are already in it… only harder.
Posted in Enceladus, news | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008

From around 1288 km. Looks like T minus 10 seconds to touch down!
Posted in Enceladus, news, portrait | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008

From 1567 km.

From 2621 km.
Posted in Enceladus, news | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008

Closest image returned so far. Lots of missing data on the right was duplicated to fill in the gaps. This results in the right side looking lower in resolution than the left.
Posted in Enceladus, news | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008

A June 30 image of Enceladus for a teaser. Nothing has yet been posted to the mission site from Cassini’s close shave. Let’s hope there are no glitches this time!
Posted in Enceladus | No Comments »
Friday, August 8th, 2008

Its been slow around here lately, but the Aug 11 planned close flyby of Enceladus should spice things up a bit. Cassini is now in it’s extended mission and Enceladus has been made a secondary target for the coming months with the primary target being the continued exploration of Titan.
Posted in Enceladus, news | 1 Comment »
Monday, March 31st, 2008
3 intensely nice new views of Saturn by Gordan Ugarkovic.



Be sure to click for the hi-res view of this one. Enceladus hangs sharply in front of saturn – doesn’t even look real. I assume the second moon there is Mimas, but notice you can even make out a 3rd moon (Pandora) lodged in Saturn’s rings, right inside the hairline F-Ring.
Posted in Enceladus, Saturn | 2 Comments »