Apparently Dawn has achieved an orbit around Vesta. There was some concern that it would even be possible considering Vesta’s weak gravitational pull. This is the first time an object has been placed in orbit around an object in the Asteroid Belt.
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.
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).
There is not really anything for me to add except… this is actually pretty excellent and listenable.
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.
Taken in January of 2011 this raw image reveals Enceladus actively spraying the heavens from its southern geysers.
We may have a new best of Cassini shots with this one. The color composite was executed by Ian Regan who was the creator of another Cassini favorite here at wanderingspace.
CASSINI MISSION from Chris Abbas on Vimeo.
Gorgeous idea — taking the raw images from the Cassini mission and making a long flip-book style movie. Leaving in the flaws and noise of raw images happens to add a nice stylistic touch to the overall feeling of the film. The nature of multiple images taken by the spacecraft often with large and small gaps in time coincidentally makes some engaging jumpy into smooth segments.
It is false color, but seeing that really does remind one of Earth.
These are some of the best icons from chopshopstore’s new tshirt, “Above Earth”.
The International Space Station
Laika aboard Sputnik 2
Hubble Space Telescope
Alan Shepard aboard Freedom (Mercury) 7
See also Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostock 1 here.
In honor of the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s historic first manned mission into the great beyond… Chop Shop’s newest iconic tshirt was released today featuring 23 historic missions of mankind’s exploration of Earth and space. Missions starting with Sputnik — leading to Yuri Gagarin’s first manned mission expanding to today’s permanently manned International Space Station.
The design itself also includes unmanned missions like Sputnik, Hubble as well as missions inhabited by species other than human. A spiraling timeline weaves the missions together and is numbered with significant years of progress. Pre-Order it for Men on American Apparel’s Black, Navy or on Alstyle Black and for Women on American Apparel Black. Look for a children’s version in a few weeks as well.
April 12 will be the 50th anniversary of manned spaceflight - beginning when Yuri Gagarin climbed aboard Vostok 1 and made 1 orbit of Earth.
Hoping the Cassini team can find another opportunity to zip by Iapetus again before the end of the mission. Thus far, there are no plans.
